Difficulty navigating Chesterfield Canal

BOATERS can expect difficulty navigating the Chesterfield Canal, with large volumes of reed expected, Cheryl Turner of Canal & River Trust tells us.

This waterway has always experienced a great amount of reed, with the photographs showing the problem. This season is being particularly difficult owing to the weather being very favourable to its flourishing, with Cheryl warning:

Large volumes

"We are experiencing large volumes of weed on the Chesterfield Canal and want to make you aware that you may experience difficulties navigating certain sections for the remainder of the Summer and into the Autumn of 2012.

"This year we have been cutting weed on the canal since May and currently have two weed harvesters removing weed growing from the bed of the canal in the channel. The weed harvesters have worked from Shireoaks Marina to West Stockwith, though the majority of their work has been concentrated in the Hayton/Clayworth area."

Anglers

Boaters have complained to us that anglers are breaking off large quantities of reed to make themselves 'hides', with the reeds, together with those that have broken off naturally creating floating islands, and making it particularly difficult to work locks.

The areas around Manton and Drakeholes are particularly bad, but we are told Canal & River Trust staff are doing everything within their resources to tackle the problem.