WHAT'S GETTING BETTER you may ask?
Those blasted long-winded repairs, that's what!
We all know about the contractors and their 'complete an assessment and will work out a repair strategy' and such similar excuses including the one of 'design an appropriate solution and confirm the anticipated timescales for completion', to make a job last from Monday to Friday....and week after week.
But this new year has seen the more simple stoppages being done in a day and in some cases the same day—with not a contractor in sight, but instead Canal & River Trust's own teams, with no excuses but being told 'we are working to repair this as soon as possible'.
And it does! That's certainly much better!
The sale of the century
The great pity is that when boss man Richard Parry took over the trust he had a great sale of tools and equipment, leaving virtually nothing for anyone to work with, so Keir Contractors and its working practices were brought in—and at a cost.
Take the failure of Toddbrook Reservoir at Whaley Bridge with its repair not even going out to tender but handed to Keir.
With Allan Richards, who had been keeping us informed, told:
'At the May 2025 board meeting Trustees approved a further £6.8m spend on the Toddbrook repair. That brings cost to date up from £49.4m to £56.2m.'
It was in 2019 that part of the embankment gave way on the reservoir, with water cascading out causing people to vacate their homes.
Yet now, six years later it is still is not ready.
All the boats are out
Out of the hole that was left by the Llangollen Canal breach, with Canal & River Trust telling: 'We are pleased to report that the three boats most impacted by the breach have now been recovered and refloated.
Our focus will now turn to the work required to rebuild the canal and reopen it as soon as possible'.
But given the size and scale of the repair to reinstate the canal, it tells that the work is unfortunately expected to continue for much of 2026.
Investigations into the cause of the breach are ongoing, with a summary promised once findings are completed.
I would have thought the cause of the breach was obvious—the bank collapsed!
Exactly
Ralph tells me he had a thought the other day .... a sort of 'inverse bean counter' thought which used to be called common sense!
If a lengthsmen spots an issue on an embankment and in so doing prevents a breach, how many years does the saving in breach repair costs pay his wages? (30 years > 100 years?)
Formula:- Cost of breach repair/Lengthsmen's salary per year. You do the maths.
Will be a big undertaking
I understand that the Chesterfield Trust has received some cash to restore what it calls the Renishaw Project, though don't know how much.
I'm not sure what this entails, but there is one massive undertaking to get up to the Renishaw side of the tunnel that goes under the M1 motorway
It was some time ago that I took a walk up the remains of the flight before the tunnel and the bottom end runs between the houses and the road, with a lock actually holding fish and I being told there is some about argument who owns what.
But whatever, the line of the flight was just discernible, but only the few remains of a solitary lock halfway up the flight—as shown, which means it will be a massive undertaking to replace the entire flight.
Anyway, I reckon that the canal trust will get it done, one way or another. then comes the tunnel...
Victor Swift telling tales for 25 years...