Northern canals taking the brunt of failures

ONLY five days into the month and five canals closed.

And four out of the five closures are northern canals—two on the Leeds & Liverpool, one on the Rochdale and another on the Aire & Calder.

Latest two

The latest two closures on Wednesday are Handcocks Swing Bridge (9) on the Leeds & Liverpool and Lock 15 on the Rochdale, Keith Gudgin reports.

The swing bridge on the Leeds & Liverpool has an operation fault resulting in unsafe operation whilst the lock on the Rochdale has suffered a failure of both head gate paddles so cannot be operated.

Strange

The problem with the Grand Union Lock 45 on Marsworth Flight was a broken balance beam, but being informed on Tuesday that narrowboats could get through, but the notice on Wednesday tells that the lock is now closed to navigation.