Macc and Peak Forest

[wandering snail]

Have just attended a CRT update about the Macc and Peak Forest canals and the news is grim. Because of reservoir failures, the 2 mornings a week restricted opening of the Bosley and Marple flights that will begin on the 25th April may be stopped altogether by June if May is a dry month. They will then not reopen unless we have a deluge of a summer. CRT will endeavour to give 2 week's notice of this and will help any boater through if they find themselves stranded.

They hadn't thought about where boats will go to queue at the top of Bosley! Hire boats will not get preferential treatment from the VLK's.

When they close the canals, water will still be running through them to keep the integrity of the canal beds and the ecology happy.

Local teams have been trained up to grout any leaks, a quicker response to usual.

The water resources spokeswoman said the outlook will be bleak this year; same as last year next year but the future is bright apparently with Toddbrook hopefully operational by start of season 2024.

They cannot guarantee no impact on the T&M.

All questions to enquiries.northwest@canalrivertrust.org.uk

[Tracy D'arth]

Its a disgraceful situation.

 

Firstly the debacle of Toddbrook caused by lack of attention, then draining Bosley when they knew that it would not refill in time.

Now they are paying the EA for water from the Goyt which has run out of the Toddbrook reservoir into the Goyt in the first place!

Sheer stupidity and bad management all round.

 

If the supply to Red Bull and the tunnel from the Macclesfield fails then the most popular cruising rings in the North West will be unusable.......till 2024? Shameful way to run a system.

I suppose they will erect multiple blue signs saying the canals are closed, that will fix it.

[David Mack]

2 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Now they are paying the EA for water from the Goyt which has run out of the Toddbrook reservoir into the Goyt in the first place!

What is the basis of that statement? Paying for the water? Or just paying the pumping costs of transferring it from the river to the canal?

[Arthur Marshall]

We've seen everything getting worse year on year. Because maintenance is now only done on a crisis management basis this decline is bound to continue. Very glad I shifted my boat below Bosley a few years ago.

You can spot disasters about to happen all over the system, you can report them but nothing gets done, presumably because the only employees CRT now have are office workers - everyone else seems to be, like the Harecastle tunnel staff, agency workers or volunteers.

[Tracy D'arth]

45 minutes ago, David Mack said:

What is the basis of that statement? Paying for the water? Or just paying the pumping costs of transferring it from the river to the canal?

Vlockie on Bosley.

[ditchcrawler]

6 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Vlockie on Bosley.

7 of them if they all turn up, they have a team of 21 but only open for 3 days

[Foggy66]

Doesn’t look like I’ll be heading to bugsworth next week then 🙄

[ditchcrawler]

21 minutes ago, Foggy66 said:

Doesn’t look like I’ll be heading to bugsworth next week then 🙄

The queue is building up ready for the locks in the morning

[wandering snail]

11 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

The queue is building up ready for the locks in the morning

If that's at the top of Bosley, where are they queueing?

 

[ditchcrawler]

5 hours ago, wandering snail said:

If that's at the top of Bosley, where are they queueing?

 

 

5 hours ago, wandering snail said:

If that's at the top of Bosley, where are they queueing?

 

There were 6 of us above the long term moorings, one by the waterpoint near the lock, at least one on a vacant slot in the long term moorings ( I know that because I complimented him on his flowers) there may have been more and one who arrived during the evening who moored in the cheeks of the lock mouth overnight, I guess he got through first. Just as we were leaving at 9-30 a hire boat came chugging up behind is so that put one more in front of us. I don't know if the Volockies started early but the half dozen ahead of us were gone by 9-30. We met the first boat coming up between locks 4 and 5

[Chris T]

I don't know if it's likely that it could be so busy with boats queuing that it wasn't possible to get through the locks on the day at all (perhaps a North Cheshire Cruising Club trip out) or nowhere to moor to wait.

 

Marple has options to turn and potter about for a few days, but at Bosley you'd have to reverse some way to the nearest winding hole, it's a bit far to send someone ahead to see what's going on at the top lock.

 

 

[Leemc]

Can imagine Bosley area becoming a huge problem. Was going to go that way from Peak Forest in a couple of weeks but think will head to Ashton instead.

[Chris T]

We may brave Bosley this week, while we are still able to. I will report back if we do. 

[ditchcrawler]

59 minutes ago, Chris T said:

We may brave Bosley this week, while we are still able to. I will report back if we do. 

When we came down Saturday the last boat wishing to go up entered the flight at about12 o'clock, we met them above the bottom lock

[Chris T]

Had you / they been waiting since the locks opened that morning?  Or arrived part way through the morning (which had been my plan to avoid a bottleneck first thing). If the former, that's not very encouraging.

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, Chris T said:

Had you / they been waiting since the locks opened that morning?  Or arrived part way through the morning (which had been my plan to avoid a bottleneck first thing). If the former, that's not very encouraging.

I had been at the top since late afternoon, there was already one boat on the water point, one on a vacant long term mooring, and two between me and the end of the long term moorings, later in the day I could see three moored behind me and an ex working boat came by and moored in the lock mouth overnight. I cast off at 9-30 as all the boats ahead of me had gone down the flight by then and one more arrived  just as I was untying and went past me. We met the first boat coming up between locks 4 and 5 then a boat at every lock. the last being between locks 11 and 12. I didn't expect to get into the flight so early.

[Chris T]

Thanks for the info. We have just moored near Dane Moss swing bridge in case there is no room above the permanent moorings and will probably do the same in the morning and give it an hour or so to get boats moving. Hoping today's rain may have put some people off. 

[haggis]

We turned onto the Macc a wee while ago and hope to get within striking distance of Bosley before we moor. Although I knew about the lock restrictions I hadn't factored them in to our planned route till Brian reminded me 🙂

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Chris T said:

Thanks for the info. We have just moored near Dane Moss swing bridge in case there is no room above the permanent moorings and will probably do the same in the morning and give it an hour or so to get boats moving. Hoping today's rain may have put some people off. 

There are hundreds of yards of moorings just before the long term ones. there were at least 6 boats there plus big gitgaps when we were there

[Chris T]

Since we moored up, 7 boats have passed us, plus the one that was in front of us as we moored. So we will definitely not be getting up early for the 8.30 opening of the locks.

 

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Chris T said:

Since we moored up, 7 boats have passed us, plus the one that was in front of us as we moored. So we will definitely not be getting up early for the 8.30 opening of the locks.

 

You should meet @haggis coming up

[Chris T]

Hopefully! 

[wandering snail]

4 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

There are hundreds of yards of moorings just before the long term ones. there were at least 6 boats there plus big gitgaps when we were there

This from a CRT email: Our local operations team are currently marking out suitable overnight moorings at the top of the Bosley Flight, reserved for those wishing to travel down the flight. Signage will be installed onsite to indicate these moorings and advising customers not to travel to the top of the flight until the lock flight opens at 8.30am on the morning of their passage. Signage will also be installed at Bridge 49A, Royal Oak Footbridge advising our customers of the temporary moorings ahead, that it will be subject to availability, and to not moor beyond Bridge 53, due to the long-term moorings here. We would hope all customers will be respectful of this advice and others.

[ditchcrawler]

9 minutes ago, wandering snail said:

This from a CRT email: Our local operations team are currently marking out suitable overnight moorings at the top of the Bosley Flight, reserved for those wishing to travel down the flight. Signage will be installed onsite to indicate these moorings and advising customers not to travel to the top of the flight until the lock flight opens at 8.30am on the morning of their passage. Signage will also be installed at Bridge 49A, Royal Oak Footbridge advising our customers of the temporary moorings ahead, that it will be subject to availability, and to not moor beyond Bridge 53, due to the long-term moorings here. We would hope all customers will be respectful of this advice and others.

When did you get that? I think there is a lot of left not knowing what right is doing

[wandering snail]

21 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

When did you get that? I think there is a lot of left not knowing what right is doing

Today, a reply from North West to a boater who asked about the potential problems on the Macc and PF this summer, see FB NABO page.