Official stoppages—2022/23

LAST October, narrowboatworld revealed the shocking truth that Canal & River Trust (CaRT) was failing in its statutory duty to maintain its waterways.

It published its navigation (Stoppages—April 2022 to September 2022).

In the first six months of its 2022/23 financial year CaRT lost a staggering 4,095 days to navigation. On an average day more than 22 stoppages had been in force. It could not get worse!...but it has as Allan Richards tells:

(In order to keep this reasonably brief, it is recommended that you read (or reread) the article referred to above before proceeding.)

24 stoppages per day

Now its more than 24 stoppages per day!

The first six months of 2022/23 saw an average of just over 22 stoppages per day with a total of 4,095 days lost to navigation. Included in this figure were some 135 days lost due to the previous years Winter Works overrunning.

Now it has been found that the whole year resulted in 14,115 days lost which equates to an average of 38.7 stoppages per day.

8,898 days lost

Taking the years Winter Works and the previous years overrunning Winter Works away from the above figure leaves us with 8,898 days lost, an average of 24.4 stoppages per day.

The graph below shows the days lost to navigation over the year both with and without Winter Works.

CaRT figures showing days of the year—1 to 365.

Kept altering Winter Works

 As a sanity check, CaRT was asked if could providethe some figures. Whilst it was able to provide for the total days lost it was unable to give days lost excluding Winter Works. Perhaps this is unsurprising as, although the list of Winter Works was finalised in August 2022, CaRT kept altering it!

The total figure given by CaRT was 12,350 which equates to an average of 33.8 stoppages per day.

Investigation found that CaRT’s figure is lower because they were not including all stoppages. To give just one example, CaRT did not include 365 days for the long running stoppage on the Springs Branch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

Another reason that CaRT’s figure is lower is it does not appear to take into account that some stoppage notices provide details of several stoppages. A good example of this is the single 'water resources' stoppage notice for the Leeds & Liverpool Canal detailing stoppages at more than half a dozen lock flights.

Taking the above into account, Allan is confident that his figures are accurate.

Summary

CaRT’s current grant agreement with DEFRA requires it to publish information on towpath closures. It does not require CART to publish details of navigation closures. The Trust did provide figures on a voluntary basis but ceased years ago having been caught fiddling the figures (see previous article).

DEFRA does, however, require CaRT to publish information on the condition of its assets. To this end, it is required to publish the percentage of assets in classes D and E (the two worst grades).

Over the years CaRT claims to have reduced the percentage of assets in the two worst grades from 15.2% to 12.85%.

So, as far as DEFRA are concerned, the general condition of the waterways has improved. Indeed, DEFRA has suggested that CaRT may wish to let the general condition of its assets deteriorate instead of asking it for more money!

How can it have improved

How can the general condition of the waterways have improved? In ten years we have seen the number of days lost to stoppages, excluding Winter Works, triple (from 8 to 24).

Bearing in mind government's intention to transfer the financial burden of CaRT from the taxpayer to civil society, perhaps a little more honesty from CaRT might have secured a better offer of future funding.