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News item canal user causes 3 million wort if damage


bigcol

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This happened some time ago I think

but how many misreporting quotes are there in this news item.

funny how the artical and new paper blames a boater for all this carnage.

Edited by bigcol
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Pray explain how you can open both top and bottom gates of a lock AT THE SAME TIME!

 

More likely that the leak in the embankment which has been reported several times over the last 3 years caused the canal level to drop.  The boater nearest to the lock, that's his boat, which had no insurance or licence or BSC we understand, went up and opened all 4 paddles. They were found to be open at midnight after the breach had occurred.

 

Old news, incorrectly reported. 

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Seems strange they attribute that to leaving a gate open the normal run for this "Faux passe"gates at one end left open (Could/could not be a problem) with paddles left open at "tother" end pound above drained 'water running over bywashes on lower pounds means full pounds & a possibility of flooded towpath  A leak left unattended too =the Wardle breach & attendant flooding ,could have been worse if gates /paddles were incorrectly set but not a problem without the breach after all how many gates /paddle are wrongly set each year and the worst outcome is an empty pound & possible minor flooding

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Er, precisely. There have been lots of excuses since March as to why this happened. Basically lack of attention to the canal by CRT.

There have been even more excuses for why it has not been fixed in the last 5 months.

Open days this weekend, another excuse for 2 more lost working days, plus the extra work making it safe for the gongoozlers to squelch around.

  • Greenie 1
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5 minutes ago, rowland al said:

After getting the general public on side (boaters are now seen as a minoity customer) the PR machine is trying to turn the public against boaters.

?

 

Anyway, I’d heard it was badgers! ?

So, how did Badgers manage to open both gates, or even use a windlass ?

  • Haha 1
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Quote

 

Dear Canal & River Trust,

There has been much speculation as to the cause of the breach of the Shropshire Union Canal which occurred on 15th March 2018 between the Wardle Lock & Stanthorne Lock, Middlewich, Cheshire. Various reasons have been put forward and this has included badgers weakening the canal bank or even that the lock paddles were left open.

Environmental Information Regulations 2004 request: 


a) Please can you supply the engineers survey & investigation reports which the C&RT have which relate to the cause of the breach which occurred on 15th March 2018 between the Wardle Lock & Stanthorne Lock, in Middlewich.

 

I visited the breach the following day and I feel the following is a much more likely explanation:

 

1) A small section of the Southern side of the Shropshire Union canal bank immediately East of the aqueduct failed and collapsed into the canal due to its poor/weak condition.

2) The collapse of the Southern side caused a blockage in the canal, and there is evidence that excess water (splash or overflow) flowed down the Northern bank just 5 or 10 metres to the East of where the main breach happened.

3) The damage to the Southern canal bank allowed water ingress which undermined the canal bed by gradually washing away material which eventually led to a catastrophic failure and breach of the Northern canal bank.

b) Generally speaking (and from the perspective of the C&RT) is there an insurance exclusion clause in place, or any financial (including the C&RT having to pay out compensation) or any funding penalty if a canal breach is found to have been caused by a lack of maintenance rather than some deliberate or accidental act?

 

Yours faithfully,

Harry Random

 

The above, submitted as an information request, on 16 August, has received no response from C&RT.

 

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37 minutes ago, Allan(nb Albert) said:

The above, submitted as an information request, on 16 August, has received no response from C&RT.

 

I would suggest that if it involves paying out compensation, C&RT are unlikely to acknowledge the failure was caused by their inactions.

 

Having said that - they did pay out compensation to affected parties when the Mon & Brec breaches occurred.

(We were looking at buying a boat hire business / marina and the payment appeared in their accounts as 'income')

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10 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

I would suggest that if it involves paying out compensation, C&RT are unlikely to acknowledge the failure was caused by their inactions.

 

Having said that - they did pay out compensation to affected parties when the Mon & Brec breaches occurred.

(We were looking at buying a boat hire business / marina and the payment appeared in their accounts as 'income')

Certainly, there is no funding penalty. Unlike towpath closures, C&RT does not have to report navigation closures under the grant agreement. It does report them but in a different way.
 

The reason that C&RT is so keen to blame third parties for emergency navigation closures is that it allows them to under report "closure days" and claim that they are reducing the figure year on year.

 

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Certainly the view of someone opening both sets of paddles is not new. I have left Middlewich towards that lock in the morning around 8 ish and have had to stop as someone was coming down as the paddles were up and water was flowing. After a little while, I sent Mary the crew up to give em a hand as it was obvious to me that whoever was coming down had a problem.

When she got there i could see her feet running around and the clicking of the gear. After a while the lock opened and nobody was in there.

She had arrived and saw that both bottom and top paddles were opened.

I gave thought of what had happend and thought that it might be the farmer having a tiff with Cart,  as happens on the Southern oxford at times.

Judging the problem sorted we motored on our way.

This was happend some time before the a breach at a guess it was at least 12 months before.

Surely, if that has happened to me then it has had to happen to others!

Edited by nipper
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Has any independent person asked the farmer who owns the adjoining fields about when he reported the leak on the embankment, allegedly over 3 years ago? The minor leak into a field on the off side just up the canal a ways took months of haranguing before they came out and fixed it , they sent a loss adjuster first to pay off the farmer rather than repair it.

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Can all the paddles left up really cause a strong enough flow to overcome the bywashes at the next lock (Wardle)?

I've encountered similar on the Northampton arm and the by washes were more than adequate to cope with a whole pound being quickly drained into them...

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2 minutes ago, Dave123 said:

Can all the paddles left up really cause a strong enough flow to overcome the bywashes at the next lock (Wardle)?

I've encountered similar on the Northampton arm and the by washes were more than adequate to cope with a whole pound being quickly drained into them...

I would doubt it.

The bywash at Wardle Lock is large as its the last one on the canal.

It runs under the front of the cottage and makes a heck of a noise if you are inside.

I've often seen it run so fiercely that boats have been unable to enter the lock from below, being pinned against the opposite bank.

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It is possible to have paddles (not gates) left open at both ends, especially when going up:

 

If a paddle is left partially raised at the bottom then the lock will nearly fill in some cases, depending on relative leakages etc. An impatient boater may well, seeing that there is only a couple of inches to go, use additional force (aka the boat engine) to push the top gates open. If the gates are then either left open or the paddles up then there will be a continuous flow through the lock. If this is the last boat through in an evening (and I suspect that boats passing through late in the day may perhaps have been over-stretching themselves and are less attentive or careful) then several hours of water loss will take place before an early boater arrives and notices  or corrects it.

 

I am not for one moment saying that this happened at Middlewich, and it is likely that unless someone fesses up to having done so, no-one will even prove it either way, but my point is that to belittle the suggestion on the grounds that it is not possible is not helpful either. 

 

For the avoidance of doubt, I have believe that I have seen the basic situation occur.

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