No date for the Rochdale reopening

THERE is still no date for the reopening of the Rochdale Canal.

The navigation was closed as Canal & River Trust engineers believed the underside of Punchbowl Bridge (43) was unstable, Keith Gudgin reported.

Repair rests with local council

But this is a third party owned bridge so the repair rests with the local council, so there is no intimation when it will be repaired and reopened.

The only information is that there will be a further update on Friday of this week.

Cost forwarded

In the past such third party structures that had failed were repaired by the then British Waterways with the cost then forwarded to the owners, on the gounds that the navigation needed to be re-opened without delay.