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Boat owners on UK’s longest canal stuck amid record water shortage


David Mack

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Boat owners on UK’s longest canal stuck amid record water shortage.

 

A lack of recent rainfall forces part of the Leeds-Liverpool canal to shut while 5 million face a hosepipe ban.

 

Boat owners on the UK’s longest canal will not be able to move their boats next week, due to a water shortage, while 5 million people have been warned they may be soon facing a hosepipe ban.

Stretches of the Leeds-Liverpool canal will be closed during periods next week after a lack of rainfall has led to low levels in some Yorkshire and Lancashire reservoirs, leaving canal locks unable to be filled.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/12/uks-longest-canal-to-close-as-reservoir-levels-drop-to-26-year-low

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2 hours ago, David Mack said:

Boat owners on UK’s longest canal stuck amid record water shortage.

 

A lack of recent rainfall forces part of the Leeds-Liverpool canal to shut while 5 million face a hosepipe ban.

 

Boat owners on the UK’s longest canal will not be able to move their boats next week, due to a water shortage, while 5 million people have been warned they may be soon facing a hosepipe ban.

Stretches of the Leeds-Liverpool canal will be closed during periods next week after a lack of rainfall has led to low levels in some Yorkshire and Lancashire reservoirs, leaving canal locks unable to be filled.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/12/uks-longest-canal-to-close-as-reservoir-levels-drop-to-26-year-low

Yawn,yawn.What else is new?

Will paddleboard sales really take off due to pissed off boaters needing to get their boating "fix"  😢

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13 hours ago, David Mack said:

Boat owners on UK’s longest canal stuck amid record water shortage.

 

A lack of recent rainfall forces part of the Leeds-Liverpool canal to shut while 5 million face a hosepipe ban.

 

Boat owners on the UK’s longest canal will not be able to move their boats next week, due to a water shortage, while 5 million people have been warned they may be soon facing a hosepipe ban.

Stretches of the Leeds-Liverpool canal will be closed during periods next week after a lack of rainfall has led to low levels in some Yorkshire and Lancashire reservoirs, leaving canal locks unable to be filled.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/12/uks-longest-canal-to-close-as-reservoir-levels-drop-to-26-year-low

Pedant alert........I always thought that the GU was the UKs longest canal, being

10 miles longer than the L&L

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Longest single canal i think is the qualification.

 

What's new is henhurst and poolstock locks bring included as part of the Wigan flight.  We moved west of Wigan to avoid the now annual closure from Skipton to Wigan so royally peeved that this year CRT have included these locks effectively isolating the Western end too

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13 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

Yawn,yawn.What else is new?

Will paddleboard sales really take off due to pissed off boaters needing to get their boating "fix"  😢

I'm not sure there's room for any more paddleboards on the Thames!

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38 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

Apparently each boat passing through a lock uses 20,000 litres of water. That seems rather low to me.

You're right. They are out by an order of magnitude. More like 200,000 litres.

A lock 62' long x 14'wide x 8 foot drop, gives 6944 cubic feet. One cubic foot is 28.3 litres.

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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2 hours ago, George and Dragon said:

Apparently each boat passing through a lock uses 20,000 litres of water. That seems rather low to me.

 

This article was amended on 13 July 2022. Between 140,000-240,000 litres of water are used each time a boat passes through a canal lock, not 20,000 as an earlier version said.

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41 minutes ago, Chris John said:

Cue the CRT bashing 

I blame John Longbotham. 

The L&L has run short of water since it was built. Climate change isn't going to improve things much, even for those who don't believe it's happening.

Apart from that, rubbish lock and bridge maintenance don't help. But then, like always, you get what you pay for and prioritise. Low taxes means no money for rich men's toys - well, millionaire's toys, obviously, but not the just moderately well off.

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27 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I blame John Longbotham. 

The L&L has run short of water since it was built. Climate change isn't going to improve things much, even for those who don't believe it's happening.

Apart from that, rubbish lock and bridge maintenance don't help. But then, like always, you get what you pay for and prioritise. Low taxes means no money for rich men's toys - well, millionaire's toys, obviously, but not the just moderately well off.

You mean rich men's toys like boats?

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On 13/07/2022 at 17:49, Arthur Marshall said:

I blame John Longbotham. 

The L&L has run short of water since it was built. Climate change isn't going to improve things much, even for those who don't believe it's happening.

Apart from that, rubbish lock and bridge maintenance don't help. But then, like always, you get what you pay for and prioritise. Low taxes means no money for rich men's toys - well, millionaire's toys, obviously, but not the just moderately well off.

I think you mean John Longbothom. People have been getting his name wrong for years. It is only recently that I checked his signature. It wasn't necessarily built short of water, it is perhaps more that more boats use the canal than was initially expected. Water supplies were increased to keep up with the increasing traffic, as shown in the graph. The green in bottom right shows the approximate current usage against historic supplies, but in commercial days most traffic was on either side of the summit, only around 10% of boats passing the summit pool, so it is difficult to make accurate comparisons. Traffic on the canal was also, historically, at its greatest in winter.

1766-4-28 from Longbothom SpSt:13:2:4.jpg

boats-water.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just received our CRT email confirming the continued closure of locks on the L&L between Gargrave and Wigan area. Confirms there is still plenty of water to use the pound between Gargrave and Bingley 5 (and beyond).

A bit ironic since we had also just returned home after an abortive visit to find our narra well and truly on the bottom on our moorings with the water level well down.

Not a total loss 'cos we managed to repaint the bottom band of our tunnel colours which is normally well in the water 🤨.

Apparently, there are enough feeds between Skipton and Bingley to compensate for water going up and down Bingley 🙄 - feels to me like pouring glasses of water into a bath with the plug out.

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There may be more problems ahead for anyone travelling through Wigan tomorrow as the pound between Ell Meadow lock and Pagefield lock was very low this morning. So low that the old sunken boats in the Lime Ponds could clearly be seen.

 

I checked all the paddles at Ell Meadow lock but they were all closed so someone must have beat me to it.

 

 

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