Anderton conked!

Published: Saturday, 06 May 2023

THE Anderton Boat Lift, that recently had its long and expensive major overhaul, is no longer working!

It gave up the ghost yesterday, Friday, and will be out of order over the weekend, Keith Gudgin reports, adding:

"Months of work overhauling it for it to break down again within hours of opening!

"And it's no good them trying to blame it on the lift being 200 plus years old—the repairs were done in the last few months and should have been designed to work on the structure no matter what age it is? Bad workmanship is bad workmanship. Passing the buck doesn't fool anybody."

Lasted just four days

Full passage on the lift after its £450,000 'emergency repair programme' was on the 1st of May, meaning it lasted just four days!

EdwinClarke

So now, Canal & River Trust has no option but to cancel bookings of both boat trips and individual boats until it is repaired.

The problem is a jammed river gate, with the engineers not able to free it so therefore having to await the services of specialists’ contractors to assist the trust's teams with fixing the gate.

Advertising impossible boat trips

Yet today, though the boat lift is completely out of action, the trust is advertising its 'Coronation Weekend' with the lift giving trips on the trip boat Edwin Clark today at 10am until 4pm though it is of course aware it is not working! [Here it is unless it has been taken down.]

That really is crazy and reflects very badly on the trust's understanding of the situation.