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Alan de Enfield

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From Narrowboat World.

 

Eleven waterways closed!

Published: Wednesday, 18 July 2018

ANYONE setting out on a cruise with the holiday season upon us, should take great care and check that their planned route is available, with eleven waterways now closed.

One of our regular contributors told us that whilst at Bugsworth Basin he was told by a volunteer at the Canal & River Trust stand that the trust had been brought into being to take over the mess that British Waterways had made of looking after the canals, and that the trust was now making a better job of it! 

That is what is now known as fake news.

For the canals are in a worst state that they have ever been in with canal after canal being shut down, making it extremely difficult for boaters to actually use them and hire companies in a quandary as to where to send their customers. Here is the list:

Four breached

Middlewich branch on the Shropshire Union Canal
Macclesfield Canal
Wyrley and Essington Canal
Leeds & Liverpool Canal (Leigh to Liverpool section)

Three with damaged locks:

Peak Forest Canal
Trent & Mersey Canal
Huddersfield Narrow Canal

Three with no water:

Leeds & Liverpool canal (Wigan to Leeds section, to be locked during August)
Rochdale Canal (closed at Tuel Lock intermittently)
Glasson Branch on the Lancaster Canal

One with a broken pump:

Grand Union Canal

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16 minutes ago, Thorfast said:

11!

Somewhat exagerated and sensationalist as to be expected.

Well, yes, but can anyone actually remember a time when there were quite so many total stoppages/breaches in the middle of the holiday season?  There were the floods a few years back which closed some of the rivers and the big breach on the T&M above Northwich, but I can't recall setting out for my usual summer jaunt and having quite so few options as to where to go.  And you can see, as you potter along, the erosion of towpaths that's likely to lead to more breaches, and the state of decay of a lot of the bridges that threaten collapse.

The fact that it's happening at this time is significant as it implies that the usual winter stoppage maintenance program is emphatically not keeping pace with the system disintegration.

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2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

From Narrowboat World.

 

Eleven waterways closed!

 

Published: Wednesday, 18 July 2018

 

ANYONE setting out on a cruise with the holiday season upon us, should take great care and check that their planned route is available, with eleven waterways now closed.

 

One of our regular contributors told us that whilst at Bugsworth Basin he was told by a volunteer at the Canal & River Trust stand that the trust had been brought into being to take over the mess that British Waterways had made of looking after the canals, and that the trust was now making a better job of it! 

 

That is what is now known as fake news.

 

For the canals are in a worst state that they have ever been in with canal after canal being shut down, making it extremely difficult for boaters to actually use them and hire companies in a quandary as to where to send their customers. Here is the list:

 

Four breached

 

Middlewich branch on the Shropshire Union Canal
Macclesfield Canal
Wyrley and Essington Canal
Leeds & Liverpool Canal (Leigh to Liverpool section)

 

Three with damaged locks:

 

Peak Forest Canal
Trent & Mersey Canal
Huddersfield Narrow Canal

 

Three with no water:

 

Leeds & Liverpool canal (Wigan to Leeds section, to be locked during August)
Rochdale Canal (closed at Tuel Lock intermittently)
Glasson Branch on the Lancaster Canal

 

One with a broken pump:

 

Grand Union Canal

 

And I was reprimanded by some for my post as to what will be cruisable by August - we haven’t even got the little darlings on holiday yet - we are bravely setting out for the next 2 months to do the Leicester ring hoping to get back but the traffic that has diverted from the north as well as the IWA rally will ensure the usage levels are well up - CRT really need to review their obvious failings as exposed particularly by this years problems and decide what needs to happen to improve life for licence payers who actually cruise the system but as the problem is at the top I wonder who’s going to initiate the process ???

Edited by Halsey
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Are you saying that being by water is not enchancing your (and Jeff's) welllness Nick?

 

We got bollocked earlier this year for saying the HNC isn't fit for the purpose of navigation. We were told to be 'more creative' in how to moor to use the locks etc (Ha Ha!)

 

I've never seen top lock gates so leak free as those last half dozen or so up to the summit but I can't help feeling that the money spent on maintaining that navigation would have been better spent elsewhere.

Edited by Victor Vectis
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24 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

Are you saying that being by water is not enchancing your (and Jeff's) welllness Nick?

 

We got bollocked earlier this year for saying the HNC isn't fit for the purpose of navigation. We were told to be 'more creative' in how to moor to use the locks etc (Ha Ha!)

 

I've never seen top lock gates so leak free as those last half dozen or so up to the summit but I can't help feeling that the money spent on maintaining that navigation would have been better spent elsewhere.

Yes certainly some of the locks are leak free, others not. There was a hole in the canal at the base of s bywash, water pouring out like bathplughole and not seeming to arrive in the pound below! Lots of silt, we got stuck under bridge 70 but the actual lock just after had adequate depth. It is or could be a fantastic canal so I wouldn’t say the money would be better spent elsewhere. I would say the money would be better spent on something other than thousands of new blue signs!

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2 hours ago, Detling said:

Some of the lack of water can be blamed on the lovely summer weather we are enjoying, the rest is leaks + a bit of boater negligence. Can't blame CRT for the first and last.

Perhaps if the reservoirs & inlets to the canal were dredged & less water sold off & locks reduced in leakage the lack of rain could be made to last longer than at present If the lock gates were renewed & not so tired/rotten less damage /stoppages would occur from nudges by the not so skillful boater

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More attractive and meaningless crt signs on the worcester and birmingham including one which was tripe like’ stop breath and look around you’ or some such pseudo psycho babble . I was sodding stopped, on the bottom, the lister was breathing heavily, and i was looking at graffiti and rubbish. 

 

In defence of  crt,  land and water were dredging well 300 metres up the cut and we hit almost 2.5 mph for the bit they had done. Our speed prior to that from the top of tardi had been 1.4 mph, grinding rocking rolling.

they seem to be loading the dredgings in a lorry.  

 

In the meantime crt were scattering grass seeds on the bank ( in a drought) and scratching at some bricks on the tardi flight moorings with a hoe. The moorings are 18 inches deep...

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2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Would you care to post the revised list ?

 

This is for today (18 July 2018).

The red 'X' means it is an 'Emergency Navigation Closure'.
The red 'X' with 'TP' underneath means that the towpath is also closed.

Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Macclesfield Canal 
From Date: 9th July 2018 at 07:00 
To Date: 18th July 2018 at 18:00 inclusive
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Montgomery Canal 
From Date: 2nd July 2018 at 08:00 
To Date: 28th July 2018 at 16:00 inclusive
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Birmingham & Fazeley Canal 
From Date: 4th June 2018 at 08:00 
To Date: 20th July 2018 at 17:00 inclusive
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Macclesfield Canal 
From Date: 15th July 2018 at 12:45 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation ClosureTowpath Closure
Waterway: Huddersfield Narrow Canal 
From Date: 11th July 2018 at 15:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Glasson Branch (Lancaster Canal) 
From Date: 25th June 2018 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal 
From Date: 21st June 2018 at 07:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation ClosureTowpath Closure
Waterway: Leeds & Liverpool Canal 
From Date: 13th June 2018 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Weaver Navigation 
From Date: 2nd June 2018 at 12:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation ClosureTowpath Closure
Waterway: Middlewich Branch (Shrop Union Canal) 
From Date: 16th March 2018 at 08:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Prescott Channel 
From Date: 16th October 2017 at 08:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation ClosureTowpath Closure
Waterway: Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal 
From Date: 30th July 2017 at 07:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation ClosureTowpath Closure
Waterway: Lancaster Canal 
From Date: 23rd December 2015 
To Date: until further notice
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3 hours ago, X Alan W said:

Perhaps if the reservoirs & inlets to the canal were dredged & less water sold off & locks reduced in leakage the lack of rain could be made to last longer than at present If the lock gates were renewed & not so tired/rotten less damage /stoppages would occur from nudges by the not so skillful boater

yes, what the hot weather is doing is exposing a very leaky system.

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It is almost a month ago that I wrote in The Floater about the high number of emergency closures -

CLOSED - until further notice

The number of closures then is the same is the same as today - thirteen. Over that month, I have been monitoring on almost a daily basis the number of closures. It has varied between a low of eleven and a high of 16.

A word of caution to anyone attempting to do this type of search - it does not work properly on dates in the past, only today's date or dates in the future. Unless anyone knows different ...

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10 hours ago, Allan(nb Albert) said:

 

This is for today (18 July 2018).

The red 'X' means it is an 'Emergency Navigation Closure'.
The red 'X' with 'TP' underneath means that the towpath is also closed.

Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Macclesfield Canal 
From Date: 9th July 2018 at 07:00 
To Date: 18th July 2018 at 18:00 inclusive
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Montgomery Canal 
From Date: 2nd July 2018 at 08:00 
To Date: 28th July 2018 at 16:00 inclusive
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Birmingham & Fazeley Canal 
From Date: 4th June 2018 at 08:00 
To Date: 20th July 2018 at 17:00 inclusive
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Macclesfield Canal 
From Date: 15th July 2018 at 12:45 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation ClosureTowpath Closure
Waterway: Huddersfield Narrow Canal 
From Date: 11th July 2018 at 15:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Glasson Branch (Lancaster Canal) 
From Date: 25th June 2018 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal 
From Date: 21st June 2018 at 07:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation ClosureTowpath Closure
Waterway: Leeds & Liverpool Canal 
From Date: 13th June 2018 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Weaver Navigation 
From Date: 2nd June 2018 at 12:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation ClosureTowpath Closure
Waterway: Middlewich Branch (Shrop Union Canal) 
From Date: 16th March 2018 at 08:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation Closure
Waterway: Prescott Channel 
From Date: 16th October 2017 at 08:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation ClosureTowpath Closure
Waterway: Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal 
From Date: 30th July 2017 at 07:00 
To Date: until further notice
Emergency Navigation ClosureTowpath Closure
Waterway: Lancaster Canal 
From Date: 23rd December 2015 
To Date: until further notice

The last one is on what can hardly be called a navigable waterway, and the one before is somewhat suspect in being called navigable.

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4 minutes ago, Pluto said:

The last one is on what can hardly be called a navigable waterway, and the one before is somewhat suspect in being called navigable.

Perhaps C&RT have a different concept of what navigable means. My understanding is that a trip boat used to run over the last one and it was used by canoeists. 

The list is in reverse chronological order (i.e. newest closure first and oldest last). I guess C&RT feel there is little urgency with the last three because they are little used.

 

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16 hours ago, Victor Vectis said:

Are you saying that being by water is not enchancing your (and Jeff's) welllness Nick?

 

We got bollocked earlier this year for saying the HNC isn't fit for the purpose of navigation. We were told to be 'more creative' in how to moor to use the locks etc (Ha Ha!)

 

I've never seen top lock gates so leak free as those last half dozen or so up to the summit but I can't help feeling that the money spent on maintaining that navigation would have been better spent elsewhere.

The pounds are often so short and shallow that the only practical moorings are Visitor Moorings with 48 hour restrictions. On a canal with very few boats (at least last year when we were there). As working Genuine Continuous Cruisers™ we had to creatively interpret the rules. Lovely canal in places and the tunnel should be on every boater's bucket list.
 

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42 minutes ago, oarfish said:

The pounds are often so short and shallow that the only practical moorings are Visitor Moorings with 48 hour restrictions. On a canal with very few boats (at least last year when we were there). As working Genuine Continuous Cruisers™ we had to creatively interpret the rules. Lovely canal in places and the tunnel should be on every boater's bucket list.
 

Yes mooring on the short pounds would be foolish as well as impossible, but there are hardly any visitor moorings and those that are there, are in a poor condition. Stalybridge full of underwater junk. Roaches bank collapsed in places (although there is still room for 3 boats). Uppermill only 1 space despite lengths of bollards both sides, but a tree blocks the other space on one side, and the entire length the other side is only about 2’ deep and boulder-strewn. Couple of spaces opposite the Services just above Uppermill, but not a designated VM and so no time restrictions (14 day) so full! Nice moorings just before the tunnel, apart from the trains.

 

 Bearing in mind the tunnel can take 4 boats each way, if 4boats were travelling up in more or less a convoy to arrive at the right time, it would be very difficult to find places to moor.

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