CANAL & RIVER TRUST IN INVESTING IN 16 additional projects to strengthen the waterways after this year's drought.
At a cost of £1.5 millions the projects are being added to the trust's previously announced winter works programme of 136 lock gate replacements and other essential high-priority maintenance across the 2,000 miles canal network.
Two years of drought
Following two consecutive years of drought, the trust has identified a further package of projects that will specifically help strengthen water resilience, building on the charity’s experience of problem areas over the summer. The targeted programme will tackle significant leaks, repair lock gates, and improve vital feeders that carry water into the canal network.
While these projects were already recognised as beneficial investments, the recent droughts have increased their urgency, prompting the Trust to bring them forward. Despite the short lead times, the charity’s teams will do their best to complete the works ahead of the busier summer months alongside the existing planned winter programme.
The 16 projects span the network, from the Lancaster and Leeds & Liverpool canals in the north to the Kennet & Avon Canal in the south. They include:
Crooklands Feeder: protecting a critical water supply to the Lancaster Canal.
Hurleston Lock on the Shropshire Union Canal: adding another gate replacement to the winter programme and replacing the top gate at Hurleston Top Lock.
Bunbury Lock on the Shropshire Union Canal: reducing lock leakage affecting water levels and supplies through the wider canal system.
Marton Pound on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal: tackling leaks where additional water is currently needed to maintain levels.
Eshton Beck Feeder: strengthening water supplies and reducing demand on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal summit.
Eshton Lock on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal: repairing a leaking ground paddle that can drain the pound overnight.
Huddersfield Narrow Canal Lock 42 East: improving the transfer of water from the summit pound.
South Stratford Canal: addressing leakage around a culvert and Lock 23 to reduce the risk of restrictions or closure.
Rudyard and Knypersley feeders: safeguarding supplies to the Caldon Canal and Trent & Mersey Canal summit.
Heronsfield Feeder: helping to protect supplies to the Grand Union and Staffordshire & Worcestershire canals.
Seend Feeder: restoring a currently inoperable feeder that could supply up to five million litres of water a day to the Kennet & Avon Canal south of Devizes.
Weir 32 on the Oxford Canal: reducing losses to the River Cherwell and helping maintain the feed into the South Oxford Canal.
Grand Union Canal Lock 68: relining and refitting the lock to address significant leakage and protect navigation.
Locks 72 and 75 on the Trent & Mersey Canal: sealing up sluice and repairing liners, cill and boarding to safeguard water in the pound.
Used what we have learned
Malcolm Horne, chief operations officer at Canal & River Trust, explained:
“We have used what we learned during the summer to identify the repairs that can make the greatest difference to making the canal network more resilient to drought. By prioritising these 16 projects alongside our existing winter programme, we are investing in the places where work on leaks, lock gates, and feeders will strengthen the network and help protect navigation.
“Our canals are more than 200 years old and were not designed for the increasingly frequent extremes of weather we are now experiencing. We cannot remove every risk, but targeted investment of this kind will make the network more resilient and help us keep canals available for boaters, businesses, communities and wildlife.”
During the summer drought, the trust activated its highest level of operational response and redirected resources towards retaining water and supporting navigation. This included repairing lock gates and paddles, finding and fixing leaks, improving feeder channels and bringing forward work where temporary closures created opportunities to carry out repairs.
The canals’ age and construction mean that it is neither practical nor possible to eliminate every leak. The trust therefore prioritises problems that present the greatest threat to infrastructure, water supply, and navigation: reducing avoidable water loss and improving the movement of water around the network.
Details of any navigation restrictions needed to carry out the work will be published through the Trust’s notices and stoppages system: Notices and stoppages | Canal & River Trust