It now seems that many of your contributors are beginning to swallow the CRT line that the current closures due to water shortages are all down to the lack of rain during the last couple of months, writes Dave Brewin.
The second consecutive summer that boating has been severely restricted in this way.
My observations are that we had a very wet winter and an averagely wet spring; there was even a reasonable amount of rainfall in June. Yes, its been hot at times and July and the first part of August have been very dry. However, the amount of boat movements have been low compared to what we would have experienced a decade or more ago. Due no doubt to the changing patterns of boating where many boat owners seem happy to remain moored up in their marinas rather than get out and about on the cut.
Don't just take my word for how boat movements have reduced in recent years, speak to some of the CRT lock volunteers who all tell me how quiet things have been in recent years and this year in particular. I work for a hire company and part of my job is to take first timers out to get them comfortable with boat handling and lock operation. In recent years I can spend a couple of hours with them on a Saturday afternoon on the southern T&M and not meet another moving boat, not ideal when you want to get the hirers confident at passing other boats. Last week I cruised my own boat for 12 miles on the southern T&M and met only two other boats on the move.
So in summary, we started the "season" off with lots of water and after about 8 weeks of hot dry weather and low boat movements we have all but run out of water again. This is largely attributable to the dire state of our canal network and the volume of water that is lost through leakage. In my experience it is difficult to find a lock that doesn't leak badly. For example I recently helped friends boat through Fradley; the bottom 3 locks of the flight are in appalling condition; leaking badly and with rotting beams held together with metal frames. I could go on with more examples if space permitted.
Its all very depressing and difficult to see how things can improve any time soon. I hope I'm over reacting but if things carry on like this then canal cruising as we know it will cease to exist; boaters cannot be expected to keep paying several thousand pounds annually for an activity that is becoming increasingly unavailable for a large part of the year.
Even more depressing is the lack of any real organised campaign to get something done about it.