Wasn't everything checked?

THOUGH just the start of the season when all the winter works should have been done, we get stoppages.

The Rochdale is already closed, Keith Gudgin reports, adding—stoppages continue as per normal I see?

This time it is a 'paddle issue', with no further information told, just that it has closed the waterway.

In the past everything was checked, but obviously not now, otherwise it would have been noticed.

It is lock 17 that has the 'paddle issue'.  We are later told that the paddle has detached from the mechanism, but not told which one.

And the 'Narrow'

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal too has the same problem. With Lock 29E having a 'structure failure and the lock unusable.

The ground paddle frame has come out/broken, is what we are again told...

So three closures already.