Mon & Brec to close

THE Canal & River Trust (CaRT) will close the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal near Llangattock until the middle of March next year amid safety fears of a breach, writes Allan Richards.

The closure follows emergency repairs carried out earlier this year and will allow a half mile section of the canal between bridges 116 and 118 to be relined with PVC and concrete at a cost of £1.2millions.

300 leaks

In February, narrowboatworld alerted the public to the parlous state of this waterway (Twin threat to Mon & Brec—8/2/2012) stating that the canal had some 300 known leaks. An internal British Waterways report revealed that the waterway was at risk, stating that £60 millions needed to be spent. Even just relining the high risk section of the waterway (already partly relined as a result of a major breach some five years ago) would cost £20m.

Why?

Why did CaRT's trustees agree to take on the Mon & Brec without any plan to spend at least £20m on the waterway?