Backwater blues!

Published: Sunday, 17 April 2022

WE ARE based on the Ripon Canal, writes Kevin Howell.

Oxclose Lock at the start of the Ripon Canal has been faulty since late December. This was the second such closure in the past year.

Promised open by Easter

CaRT had hoped to start work on the latest repair w/c 11th April which was four days before Easter. We were promised that it would be sorted by Easter!

I have very little faith in what CaRT will do or say. It has taken them well over three months just to ‘hopefully’ start work and now just before Easter as well.

Can NOT be used

We had little hope that the lock would be fixed for Easter and that is exactly the case with CaRT saying in its latest update that the lock can NOT be used for leisure purposes!

What else were we going to use it for over the Easter break? Sorry to say this, but it’s time to have a massive rethink on boating in general and where we go from here (apparently nowhere!).