Lancaster Canal breach

[Chagall]

16 minutes ago, Ewan123 said:

Where's that one? We're in Parbold now...

You can keep abreast of some of the information here ... https://www.facebook.com/groups/952976534859125

[Stroudwater1]

1 hour ago, Arnac said:

It aggravates me no end when you see the CRT workboats working on resurfacing miles of remote towpaths and then the next set of locks you encounter are leaking and the paddle mechanisms are faulty. 

 

I don't pretend to know about CRT finances and CRT priorities and CRT work practices but all I do know is that the optics, from a boaters perspective, are awful.

 

Yes the optics aren’t good and yes it used to irritate me. But many if not almost all are done via council, governmental dept  and other funding. I believe that was the case with the recent Market Harborough resurfacing works. It states here, £900,000 from Dept of transport and Section 106. 
 

https://www.harboroughmail.co.uk/news/environment/ps900000-revamp-to-improve-stretch-of-harborough-canal-towpath-is-set-to-begin-4152677

It shows that someone at CRT/IWA / local Canal Society are awake and keeping an eye for opportunity. That doesn’t get away from lock problems of course. 
 

[Pluto]

3 hours ago, Ewan123 said:

Where's that one? We're in Parbold now...

The first photo is of Parbold Aqueduct (1774), taken from the site of the River Douglas Lock (1741), though nothing remains of the lock. You can scramble down to the river from the canal quite easily.

 

If you want to see another Douglas Lock site, go to Chapel House Bridge and follow the footpath down to the river, look upstream and there is a hollow in the field where the lock used to be. The river bank is in the foreground, and the river curves off to the right and then follows the trees back to the left of the picture in the distance. The lock 'hollow' is top left amongst the grass. Someday I hope to get an archaeological survey done, which may give the exact size of the lock, and thus boats, used on the navigation, which closed in 1781.

[fanshaft]

6 hours ago, Arnac said:

It aggravates me no end when you see the CRT workboats working on resurfacing miles of remote towpaths and then the next set of locks you encounter are leaking and the paddle mechanisms are faulty. 

 

I don't pretend to know about CRT finances and CRT priorities and CRT work practices but all I do know is that the optics, from a boaters perspective, are awful.

 

It may look that way but remember that towpath resurfacing etc is funded separately from outside sources specifically for the work in question.  So  these funds can't be used to fix leaky gates and faulty paddles etc.

[ditchcrawler]

Hot tar spray and chippings going on top of a sound ashfelt towpath on the Whirley & Essington, not as if its going to get worn out by HGV and looking at the barriers and signage I doubt CRT were even aware it was happening #

[peterboat]

11 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Hot tar spray and chippings going on top of a sound ashfelt towpath on the Whirley & Essington, not as if its going to get worn out by HGV and looking at the barriers and signage I doubt CRT were even aware it was happening #

Racing track for cycling I am afraid 😱 

[Ange]

11 hours ago, Chagall said:

It's a great place to overwinter, just ask Ange. 

We had a lovely year on the Lancy, it really is a wonderful canal. The only downsides were getting to the bank between official moorings and finding somewhere to buy diesel. We did have a car at the time and found a garage that had a competitive price when we filled our cans there 🙂.

 

[adam1uk]

10 hours ago, hider said:

The daft part is that boaters pay for everyone elses' pleasures, walking, fishing, paddle boarding, canoeing and squatting, sorry, sitting. The kingfishers can look after themselves. And once the moored boats have gone they can all have it to themselves and we boaters won't have to pay for it.  CRT will be delighted.

 

You really should do some research on CRT finances.  Boaters contribute only around a third of CRT's income -- and it doesn't even cover the cost of maintenance.  A third comes from the government grant, so the walkers, paddle boarders etc are paying through their taxes.  The final third comes from property, utilities etc

Edited July 26 by adam1uk

[Grassman]

7 hours ago, adam1uk said:

 

You really should do some research on CRT finances.  Boaters contribute only around a third of CRT's income -- and it doesn't even cover the cost of maintenance.  A third comes from the government grant, so the walkers, paddle boarders etc are paying through their taxes.  The final third comes from property, utilities etc

 

A great deal of the maintenance of the towpaths is carried out by (or commissioned and paid for by) the local authorities not CRT.

[hider]

7 hours ago, adam1uk said:

 

You really should do some research on CRT finances.  Boaters contribute only around a third of CRT's income -- and it doesn't even cover the cost of maintenance.  A third comes from the government grant, so the walkers, paddle boarders etc are paying through their taxes.  The final third comes from property, utilities etc

Well goody for you, the financial wizz!

I am well aware that the licence fee is a minimal income stream for CRT but as a boater I am still contributing to everyone else's' non boating canal pleasures.

[IanD]

24 minutes ago, hider said:

Well goody for you, the financial wizz!

I am well aware that the licence fee is a minimal income stream for CRT but as a boater I am still contributing to everyone else's' non boating canal pleasures.

Except you're not, the numbers show they're contributing more to *your* boating pleasures... 😉 

 

And as pointed out above, most towpath improvements are paid for by local councils -- again, which everyone pays for, with 1000x more non-boaters contributing 99.9% and boaters 0.1% of the budget -- not CART.

Edited July 26 by IanD

[hider]

Who mentioned tow path improvements?  Not I.

It all goes into the CRT pot and comes out again to whoever so my contribution is still distributed in part to other canal users other than boaters/.

[Mike Tee]

9 hours ago, adam1uk said:

 

You really should do some research on CRT finances.  Boaters contribute only around a third of CRT's income -- and it doesn't even cover the cost of maintenance.  A third comes from the government grant, so the walkers, paddle boarders etc are paying through their taxes.  The final third comes from property, utilities etc

If a third of the locks did not leak, that would be a huge improvement

[hider]

10 minutes ago, Mike Tee said:

If a third of the locks did not leak, that would be a huge improvement

We seem to have one quarter of paddles " under repair" judging by the number of locks with a paddle bagged up.

It took nearly 3 years to get the top offside paddle on the top lock at Hillmorton repaired now there is another broken on the same lock.  Another 3 years?

 

We are getting a long way off topic now, perhaps we should wait until this breach is repaired or the Lanky is closed for good.

Edited July 26 by hider

[IanD]

1 hour ago, hider said:

Who mentioned tow path improvements?  Not I.

It all goes into the CRT pot and comes out again to whoever so my contribution is still distributed in part to other canal users other than boaters/.

You seem to misunderstand how finances work... 😞 

 

Your license fee -- like that from 35000 other boaters -- goes into the CART cash bucket, as does a sum about twice as big (the DEFRA grant) from 35M non-boaters (taxpayers)

 

CART then spend a large part of their budget maintaining the canals (not very well!) for the benefit of boaters, and a rather smaller one (e.g. blue signs...) for the benefit of non-boaters -- not clear just how much but as pointed out almost all the towpath improvements are paid for by councils, so don't come out of the CART budget. For the sake of argument, let's assume this "non-boater" spend (titivating the canals/towpaths for walkers/cyclists/fishermen/canoeists...) is half the "boater" spend (locks, paddles, reservoirs, dredging, piling...).

 

(yes I know about the intangible health benefits non-boaters get from the canals, which is why all CART's KPIs focus on these not navigation)

 

So non-boaters (taxpayers) contribute twice as much to the upkeep of the canals as boaters, but the money spent for boaters benefit is twice as much as for non-boaters. Looked at impartially, to be "fair" the money contributed should really be the other way round -- license fees should be doubled and the DEFRA grant halved. Can't see many boaters agreeing with this, though...

 

Maybe you should stop complaining about your license fee "subsidising" non-boaters, given that the opposite is true? 🙂 

 

 

[Jerra]

3 hours ago, hider said:

Well goody for you, the financial wizz!

I am well aware that the licence fee is a minimal income stream for CRT but as a boater I am still contributing to everyone else's' non boating canal pleasures.

You do sometimes use the towpath so just think of your tax contribution being the towpath you stand on.

[cuthound]

14 hours ago, peterboat said:

Racing track for cycling I am afraid 😱 

 

Yup, a linear velodrome. 

 

[jonathanA]

On 25/07/2024 at 16:39, Ewan123 said:

Where's that one? We're in Parbold now...

Just east of bridge 39 by a couple of hundred yards. 

 

[Timx]

Could stop boats planning on going to Liverpool for some time.

[Peugeot 106]

1 hour ago, Timx said:

Could stop boats planning on going to Liverpool for some time.

Shit we are returning from a week in Liverpool and was planning to spend the night near the Slipway…..

Thank you for warning us

[Peugeot 106]

To be honest the damage seems to be under control and I can see very little leakage into the culvert. The canal is wide and in good condition at this point so I am hoping they will let us through very slowly maybe out of gear on the offside of the canal. They could control it with published passage times so they can supervise. Fingers crossed!

 

[peterboat]

3 hours ago, Peugeot 106 said:

To be honest the damage seems to be under control and I can see very little leakage into the culvert. The canal is wide and in good condition at this point so I am hoping they will let us through very slowly maybe out of gear on the offside of the canal. They could control it with published passage times so they can supervise. Fingers crossed!

 

Fingers crossed for you mate, I have been following this on Facebook, people are trying to swop moorings because they are trapped on the wrong side of the breech

[Timx]

Have seen lots of heavy vehicles travel down the towpath by there, I wonder if that is part of the causal problem.

[Peugeot 106]

20 hours ago, peterboat said:

Fingers crossed for you mate, I have been following this on Facebook, people are trying to swop moorings because they are trapped on the wrong side of the breech

Thanks you can uncross your fingers (for the moment) we are off again!