Water shortages and canal closures

I'm standing near King's Lock on the Trenton Mersey Canal at

Middlewich in Cheshire. Now, since the last week of

July, the section of canal South of here, stretching more than 12

miles and 30 locks, has been closed because of water

shortages. And it's not just here.

Parts of the South Oxford Canal, the North Oxford sections of the

Grand Union, parts of the Leicester line including the

famous Foxton Locks and some of the Coventry Canal are all

closed because of low water levels.

So in this extra episode of the Water Rd, we'll be looking at

what's happened this summer. Why have there been so many

closures and how have they been affecting boaters and businesses

on the waterways? We're

here on the Trent of Mersey at Middlewich.

The canal is a sad side. The water levels at least 2 feet

lower than it should be, and at times it's been even worse.

The boats moored on the permanent moorings on the

offside are sitting on the mud and you can see parts of the

holes that are normally underwater.

I mean, you really shouldn't be able to see a boat's propeller.

And things are getting even worse here because following the

August bank holiday week, the locks down from Middlewich

Junction also closed, cutting off more routes and more

businesses. Later in this extra episode,

we'll hear from the man who's responsible for water in the

canals, CRTS National Hydrology Manager, about what's caused the

problems. Spring has been exceptionally

dry summer. We've seen the heat waves, we've

had the high temperature, but it's not so much the temperature

that's so much of a problem for the canal network, but it's the

lack of rain. But first I've been speaking to

businesses affected by the water shortages and the canal

closures. As well as the waterways I've

already mentioned there are problems on the Macclesfield and

Peak Forest canals, the Rochdale, the Ashton and the

Colden, which has been closed most of the summer.

You'll hear from James Atwood from Braid Bar Boats, a boat

builder on the Mac, Ruth Chamberlain who has a chandlery

on the Middlewich branch, and Steve Furnace who runs a higher

fleet and boatyard on the Grand Union in Northamptonshire.

But we'll start with Tiffany Haynes from Kings Ground Narrow

Boats on the South Oxford, a boat builder who also has a

Marina. We've got water and the water

levels are lower, which has had some impacts and it will cause

some impacts as we look ahead to the winter as well, based on the

fact that our winter mores can't get to us unfortunately because

of closures. Because while we have water,

we've been impacted by those. And we've also lost some of our

repaint work because the winter work often comes in from further

afield and they can't get to us either.

More generally, I think, you know, there's some hesitancy

there, some people about investing in new builds or

refits and because the network doesn't feel so reliable, it's

all trickling down to us and it even impacts the desirability of

somebody heading into a career within our industry too.

So at the moment we're just doing our best and to support

our customers, maintain their boats and try and keep the

positivity alive, but the bigger picture does feel rather shaky

at the moment. How have your Moras been

impacted then and what does that meant for your business?

The the word that we'd probably use is that we're all a bit

frustrated. So our Moras absolutely love

being on the water. It's why they're here and

closures, lack of maintenance etcetera just mean that simple

things like planning a weekend cruise or a family holiday have

become quite tricky and people want to enjoy their boats.

But when they're faced with restrictions or uncertainty, it

just dampens the whole experience and for us as a

Marina, we see that disappointment first hand.

So do you think the Kanala River Trust could have handled things

differently? Yes, I do.

I think that most of us in the industry understand that it's a

huge task to look after 2000 miles of canal and no one

underestimates that. But the key thing that's been

missing is communication. If there would be more

transparency, more collaboration with marinas and boaters, we all

feel we'd all feel a bit more, I suppose, like partners rather

than just customers. And simple things keeping us

informed, involving us in decisions, showing that every

penny has been spent wisely could have made a world of

difference. And it's not about pointing

fingers, it's about working together so that the waterways

have a future for everybody. Well, I'm at Braid Bar Boats on

the Macclesfield Canal. I'm with James.

What's happened to the water levels where you are?

They've dropped significantly and it's over a foot now and

it's been dropping down significantly sort of overnight.

Yeah. So we're well on the bottom now.

So I should explain that you build your boats in the little

arm that comes off the main canal.

And what's it doing to your business?

Well, we're at the position now where the boat that's in the

paint Bay that's now complete and due to come out and be

handed over is there's no way that can come out the the paint

Bay because it's most of it that should be in the water is out of

the water. So that's stuck in the paint

Bay. Therefore the next boat to go in

the paint Bay can't go in. And then the thing I'm looking

at a bit further down the line, which is next month, is the next

Shell's due to arrive, but we're just simply not going to be able

to get that down here. So it's it's got a feel of sort

of lockdown about it really, hasn't it, because everything's

almost grinding to a halt. Feels very much like lockdown,

yeah, but the difference with lockdown was we had some sort of

help from the government and some guidance and and the likes

of that but this scenario, we've got none of that.

So we're, yeah, we're not doing too good at the minute, but it

is what it is. And I suppose if it doesn't rain

a lot, then the levels are just going to keep going down.

They're not going to go up. Yeah, yeah.

So we're just going to have to wait and see.

It will rain at some point. It always does.

It's just as and when that's going to happen.

We've got boats in at different stages as we always have.

So we're just going to continue fitting the boats out obviously

for as long as we can. As soon as we do get some water

back in, obviously going to have to catch up with a with a

painting. I'm at to Venetian Marina and

the Chamberlain Chandlery and Ruth is with me and this canal

the the Middlewich arm is actually open.

But you've been telling me you're still noticing the the

drop off in business? Really quiet at the moment

compared to how we thought in August months would be for here.

It's only our 2nd August, but we did think with the with the good

weather we would be busier. But because of all the water

levels and the stoppages, I would think we were down about

50% on our business. Because of the Cheshire locks

being shut, there's there's no one doing the Four Counties

ring. No, nobody doing the four

counties, and if you don't want to go up towards Anderton then

there's no point coming down here really, other than to see

us and go in the cafe. But please come and see us and

go in the cafe and buy a boat while you're here.

Why not? So what people are you getting

coming past then? We get the occasional 1 coming

out of the Marina just to have a pump out or top the diesel up.

Some people are coming down the lot and turning round and coming

to us but there's not many and we get we're still getting the

odd hire boat but they will obviously because of the

stoppage going north on the Trenton Mersey.

Now that will that will cease because they won't be able to

get back to base. So I envisage the next few days

will be quite quiet. Steve, you operate Grand Union

narrow boats out of Whedon and all through the summer.

The locks at either end of your stretch have been on time

restrictions, haven't they? So how's that affected your

hires? Obviously we've made sure that

we've communicated that information to the customers

before they've departed on their holidays and they've managed to

plan around those restrictions. We're luckily particularly going

South from Whedon, the timings at Stoke Brune fit in very well

with the normal cruising pattern of our customers, so they

haven't been impacted too much. It's worked that well from that

point of view, but. Then of course we had the August

bank holiday and then after that the locks at both ends of your

pound were closed completely. So what action did you have to

take then? There's initial panic, but we,

we soon work to find a solution and we've actually moved the

boats down to below the locks at Stoke Brune.

There's a service area down there where there's water pump

out facilities for Luz and we happen to have a fuel marrow

boat located there as well. So we've got all the services

there and we've done 2 changeover days there at the

bottom of Stoke Brew now and it's, it's worked out very well.

The biggest impact really on, on myself as a small family

business has really been the communications because obviously

there's been a lot of press about it in the news and, and

social media and what have you. So there's been a, a deluge of

text messages and phone calls and emails from customers.

Luckily, we've been able to give you give them the information

that their holiday can go ahead, albeit in a, in a slightly

different location. The customers are happy that

they can still have their holiday.

A lot of them are worried their holidays going to be cancelled.

We have got a couple of one month bookings but those

particular boats have been relocated up to a little place

called Great Haywood. That boatyard's actually

operated by another company called Anglo Welsh Narrow Boats,

but we're quite a small industry and all work together.

Although we're in competition, we've all got a very close

working relationship. So those boats have been

relocated to the Anglo Welsh Boatyard in Great Haywood in

Staffordshire and and there's plenty, plenty cruising up there

for one month for those two boats.

I was. Thinking because lots of the big

hire companies have multiple bases and they can just, you

know, offer their customers a a change, but it it must be much

more difficult for someone who's just a a small family business

like you said. And and even just moving from

one place to another is a lot of extra hassle, isn't it?

Yeah. I mean, the, the bigger

operators do have that option of sort of relocating customers

bookings to other boats, other bases.

Logistically it's, it's, it's puts pressure on what's quite a

small team here working for me at Brand Union, our boats.

But I've worked in the industry for over 30 years.

I've got a lot of experience and I have actually had to work off

site before many years ago. It's mainly just getting all the

planning in place, getting bedding and spares and tools and

and staff onto site. But it is, it is a challenge for

a small business like ours, I mean.

In your 30 years, have you ever seen the canal system as as

drought ridden as this? No, this is a very unusual

event, Adam. The last big impact on this

stretch of canal was in 1976. From my understanding that the

previous time before 1976 was 1911.

Adam Comerford is the national hydrology manager for the Canal

River Trust and he told me why this year was unusual the.

Main reason is a serious lack of rainfall across huge swathes of

the country. We've seen for months and months

now below average rainfall stretching back with about six

months, 6 to 8 months. Although we had a decent wet

winter, pretty much ever since then, spring has been

exceptionally dry summer. We've seen the heat waves, we've

had the high temperature, but it's not so much the temperature

that's so much of a problem for the canal network, but it's the

lack of rain that the lack of rainfall landing on our

reservoir catchments, which should drain the water into the

reservoirs to keep them or to to help bring water into the

reservoirs for us to then use to, to supply the canal system.

Now I. Know, you mentioned reservoirs

there, and I know there's been some criticism that the

reservoirs maybe weren't quite as full as they could have been

after the relatively wet sort of autumn winter that we had.

Do you think there's any fairness in that criticism

there? Is, but there's I think there's

justified reasons for it. So across our reservoir

portfolio and we've got about 7072 reservoirs, many of them

supply the canal network and that was what they were built

and designed and have been used to do ever since.

We have to keep maintaining them and invest in them to make sure

they meet modern day safety standards.

Even though there are an average age of about 200 years old, some

of them are even older than that.

So we have to every now and then do engineering work.

Sometimes that involves lowering the water levels so we can work

safely on some of the, the assets, the infrastructure, the,

the bits of the reservoir that safely hold the water back or

allow excess water to spill out. And we can't do that work when

the resolves are full. We have to sometimes empty the

resolves out or at least lower the levels.

And when we do that, of course, we then run the risk that even

if there's plenty of winter rainfall that would otherwise

get captured and stored to use in the summer months, we can't,

we simply can't do that. And so, you know, it is a

frustration that we, we have to hold these resolves down

sometimes. But we know in the long term,

we're making sure they are maintained, they're invested in

and they're, they're fit for fit for many years ahead, especially

with the, in the face of climate change and more extremes of

weather that we're we're seeing, making sure they meet those

modern day stringent safety standards is, is the top

priority. So it does mean that in some

parts of the network, some of our reservoirs and some of our

canals have been on the back foot, so to speak, in terms of

starting the boating season without absolutely everything

full. And what do you say to people

who say that the poor maintenance that they see around

the system also doesn't help because you've got, you know,

leaks in the canal bed and leaking locks?

Well, of course, in an ideal world, you know, as a charity,

the canal bed just would, would have unlimited funds to be able

to invest in all of our assets and make sure the maintenance is

as as, as, you know, perfect as it can be.

But in a way, it's a bit like running a classic car.

And there are some areas where we, we, we'd like it to perform

better and we would love to be able to invest more in that

maintenance. We, we, we prioritise as best as

we can. It's not always easy.

And it's probably worth saying that in a lot of years, when it

comes to water resources, infrastructure, the situation we

have is, is OK, it's acceptable. We've got enough capacity in

our, in our structures. We've got enough tolerance of,

you know, meeting some of those leaks and, and losses of water

with the available resource that we've got.

It's when we have these more extreme, unprecedented dry

spells, these severe periods of a lack of rainfall that it

really stretches the system to to to the extreme that we've

probably not seen for a generation or more.

And I think it's also worth saying, alongside the

maintenance we'd love to do to make things even better, we are

also feeling the effect of abstraction licences.

So these are licences that have now been issued to the trust by

the regulators, the environmental regulators in

England and Wales that limit and control how much water we take

from surface water courses. So we're now very much in the

same operating regime as the water industry, as farmers,

agriculture, industrial users who all generally need these

licences to to operate abstractions, taking of water

from streams and and other water courses.

So we now have to comply with all of these limits, which is

they're for very good reason, to protect the environment and

ensure that streams and water courses aren't dried up and that

in a way squeezes our available resource just at the time when

we need it most obviously. There are lots and lots of

closures in the north and in the Midlands at the moment.

How much rain do we actually need before things start

reopening? So the, the extent of closures

we're experiencing, the restrictions and the closures

are, are very, of course, regrettable for us.

We, we, we'd rather not be in this position as, as as the

operator, as, as, as the charity that looks after these

waterways. You know, it's not something we

decisions we take lightly to close and restrict these canals.

And we know it's having a huge impact on boaters, boating

businesses, hire boat operators, people who want to enjoy our

wonderful waterways. And I think all the company is,

you know, as soon as we get enough rainfall to be able to

reopen sections of canal, we it will do.

So it might be quite, quite rapid in some locations if we

get rainfall. But all the indications and all

the modelling and all the forecasting we've been doing,

looking at the current deficits of water supply in the soil, the

way the soils are so dry at the moment, we would need weeks of

sustained steady rainfall rather than a few short lived showers.

Torrential downpours may not actually help us that much.

They might pick up the levels in sporadic locations fleetingly.

The underlying shortage of water is still very much evident.

So we're expecting to need, you know, significant rainfall right

through, you know, the autumn and, and in previous years in

some previous droughts, we've had a lack of rainfall through

September, October, November, right after Christmas in, in

some more severe years. So we are, you know, hoping for

the best but planning for the worst as ever to to try and

manage these impacts. And it's very difficult because

we simply don't know precisely when it's going to rain, just

like most other people. And it sounds as though you need

the right sort of rain as well, yes?

Absolutely. The soils, particularly very,

very dry, sort of hard baked soils, Anyone who's got a garden

lawn, we'll see how parched it is.

And when you sometimes get to the rainfall, it can be, you

know, effective at recharging the flows into the rivers.

But it has to, like you say, it has to be the right sort of rain

to really make a difference. We might see intense storm

events that'll be very rapid intensity rainfall that could,

the water could pour off quickly and, and not really soak into

the ground and create any sustained recovery.

It might very quickly and very flashily run off down rivers and

streams, some of which we can use other, other water may just,

you know, bypass our system or we can't actually make use of

it. And that we lost out to the sea

effectively. So although it's much more

pleasant boating in nice weather, we desperately need the

autumn and winter to be wet so the canals can open up again.

That's all for this extra edition of the Water Rd produced

and presented by me, Adam Porter.

Next time we'll be joining volunteers from the Inland

Waterways Association at a Log Wind, helping people through a

log and raising awareness of the organisation.

I think it's brilliant. It's great that they're getting

volunteers helping us tourists along our way, showing us how to

do things correctly. If you're enjoying The Water Rd,

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Water Rd.

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