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, please subscribe or follow us so you're alerted when new episodes are released.

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