Will need a lot of attention

I CAN but entirely agree with you about the structure of the canals having reached their 'sell by' date, writes Edwin Forbes.

Lasting 200, and often more than 200 years, is not bad going, so to survive, like anything else they will need a lot of attention, but having had a couple of trips to see the work on the locks on the Leicester Section I can tell you without any chance contradiction, that they are not getting it.

Why doing again?

Living not too far away I often walk the towpath with my dog, and witnessed the work, and as you rightly say, the same work that was done in 2017 on the same locks, that begs the question why does it need doing again after so short a time?

Why it is taking so long I just could not see, as none of the gates are being replaced and there are no walls being rebuilt as I could see, just lots of fencing all over everywhere with boats loaded with it, (as Edwinn's picture shows) but at one of the locks I could not see anything that was done.

Stop the leaking

I made a point of chatting to the people there, when I could find them, and the theme seems to be to stop the leaking, that was the reason for the two strips in 2017, so I was little wiser. As to actual work being done, I just did not get it.