England’s canal network will grind to a halt next week as the ongoing drought causes chaos for boaters, holidaymakers and businesses.
Passage through three major canal routes will be restricted on Tuesday, adding to dozens of closures that are already in place due to low water levels.
The closures have affected popular holiday routes and liveaboard boaters are dashing across the country to desirable spots amid fears the canals will remain shut across the winter.
It comes as the Canal and River Trust (CRT) faces a funding crisis that the charity has previously warned could lead to the indefinite closure of some routes.
The charity told The i Paper that Britain’s canals are becoming more difficult to manage due to climate change, and that “a good couple of weeks of solid rain” is needed before the locks can reopen.
The low water levels are due to the the ongoing drought affecting large swathes of the country, which means less water flows into the canals from land, rivers and reservoirs.
Around 30 locks on three canals will be closed on Tuesday 26 August to manage water levels on the network, according to an email CRT has sent out to boaters.
Opening a lock releases water from one area of a canal into the next, so CRT is closing the locks to prevent some parts of the canal from drying up completely.
Restrictions have been put on many other locks across England, which means they can only be used between 10am and 3pm.
The latest closures affect the Grand Union Canal – the main route connecting London to Birmingham – the Oxford Canal and the Coventry Canal.
It adds to lock closures that have already been introduced on canals in the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands, meaning large swathes of the network are now unnavigable.
A stranded boats sit on the canal bed of the Trent and Mersey Canal which has been closed due to low water levels (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty)The closures are all due to low water levels, with England currently facing a “nationally significant water shortfall”, according to the Government.
“Simply there’s just not enough water falling out of the sky at the moment,” said Julie Sharman, the chief operating officer at CRT, adding that the reservoirs the trust uses to replenish water levels have been low since spring and are now “dropping off at a hell of a rate”.
“Some canals that we have no working memory of being closed because of water problems are seeing impact this year,” she said in reference to the West Midlands, Oxford and River Lea in London.
‘Our livelihood depends on the canal’
The closures have caused chaos for boaters, many of whom are now scrambling across the country to find a spot to stay in until the waterways become navigable again.
Paul Storey, an artist and YouTuber who lives on a canal boat with his partner Antony, is racing from the Coventry Canal to Cheshire so Antony can be near his job in Manchester, which he travels to twice per week. They cruise the whole network but do not want to be stuck too far from work for an extended period of time.
Paul, left, and Antony are racing across the country to be near Antony’s work when the closures hit“It’s been exhausting to be honest,” he said, explaining that some locks have long queues to get through as everyone is on the move. They hope to do the journey within a week, but have to take a long detour due to existing closures.
“If there are any more closures we are going to be trapped on a section of canal and then Antony’s going to be travelling for two hours every time he goes to work.”
The stoppages are also affecting floating businesses, such as the Three Sheep Cheese Boat, which Nici Griffin runs on her liveaboard boat with her partner Sharon.
When the closures come into place, the floating cheese mongers will be stuck on a 15-mile stretch of canal in Northamptonshire between two locks, which means they are missing three festivals where they were planning to trade.
Griffin said the festivals were essential for getting their business “out of the red”. The cheese boat has been up and running for less than one year, after the couple paid for a costly refit of their boat to make it suitable for storing cheese.
“It’s affecting a lot of traders. Some can’t get back to their home moorings for winter… We’re hearing that possibly some of these canals aren’t going to be fully operational until winter,” she said.
Sharon, left, and Nici run a floating cheesemongers called the Three Sheep Cheese BoatHolidaymakers looking to travel to affected parts of the canals will have to either cancel their holiday or move location.
Larger rental companies are offering customers transfers to other locations on canals less affected by water shortages, while smaller operators are trying to stay open with fewer route options available.
Boat hire companies in Yorkshire are currently only offering short holidays due to restrictions on the Leeds and Liverpool Canals.
Kate Boats, which rents out narrowboats on the Grand Union Canal, told customers this week that it was moving its boats to nearby boatyards in an attempt to keep them available for holidays.
Nick Rowson, the environmental director at the Cotswold Canal Trust, a charity restoring two canals in the Cotswolds, said they have had to cancel the public boat trips they run due to low water levels.
“We’re just trying to conserve what water we have got,” he said, adding that he is worried about the impact on fish and other wildlife if water levels drop lower.
Uncertain future for the canals
The CRT is facing a wider crisis as the government steps away from funding the charity, forcing it to rely more heavily on public donations.
Its government grant has been frozen for several years, during a period of high inflation, and its funding will be reduced by 5 per cent each year between 2027 and 2037, following a decision taken by the previous Conservative government.
CRT has warned it faces a significant shortfall in the funding it needs to keep Britain’s canals up and running. This summer has offered a glimpse into what can happen if the network is not made resilient to climate change.
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Managing the network during a drought is costly, according to Sharman, with hundreds of personnel deployed to manage water levels across the network.
Many of the 1,500 locks managed by CRT are leaky and require maintenance to stop water spilling out of sections of the canal during periods of drought.
“It’s an amazing interconnected system, but it was built 200 years ago, and it takes a lot of management,” Sharman said.
“We’re very different to commercial organisations like water companies; they can increase their charges in order to fund the work that needs to be done.”
Sharman said it was difficult to put a date on when the canals would reopen, but said we need “a good couple of weeks of solid rain”.
She said it would be “naive” to think this would not happen again in future summers, as climate change brings more frequent droughts to the UK.
For those who live, work and holiday on the canals, the impact of climate change is a concern.
“What if this continues? Each summer is getting hotter,” Storey said. “If this continues year after year, what’s going to happen to the canals?”
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