Reservoir work and drought cause canal closures

THE Canal & River Trust took the difficult decision to temporarily close locks, restricting navigation on the Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals from late June as a combination of essential reservoir repairs and lack of rainfall caused water supplies in the North West to drop to historically low levels.

The two canals are usually supplied with water by four reservoirs. However, essential maintenance works at Bosley Reservoir over the winter requiring the reservoir to be drawn down, coupled with the ongoing repair works at Toddbrook Reservoir, resulted in the main boating season starting with much less stored water than normal.

North West regional director Daniel Greenhalgh said: “The Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals have had more than their fair share of troubles over recent years and we’ve put every effort into keeping them open for boaters.

“Unfortunately the ongoing repair works at Toddbrook Reservoir as well as emergency works at Bosley Reservoir, coupled with far less rainfall than we needed, have meant that there just isn’t enough water for navigation and we’ve taken the incredibly hard decision to close the locks to boat traffic until water levels recover. We will be carefully watching how the reservoirs refill and will open the locks as soon as possible.

“We’ve been carrying out a significant amount of water savings maintenance work over the past few years and in the longer term, once all our reservoirs are back open. This will improve the resilience of the canals, which is more important than ever as climate change shows us long dry spells are becoming the new normal.”

The trust is continuing the ongoing water-saving repair works to increase all available water flows into the canal network. While essential safety works were carried out at Bosley Reservoir it took the opportunity to dredge and remove vegetation on all the feeders, increasing water flows and reducing losses.

At Sutton Reservoir repair and improvement work is under way to improve control of feeds, allowing the trust to maximise water flows, and dredging and vegetation clearance works have been completed.

Repair works are being carried out at Combs Reservoir along the feeder channel, while at Marple Lock Flight recent works have been completed to dredge and reduce water losses. The trust is also pumping water from Combs Reservoir via the River Goyt into the canal until the feeder is fully operational.

In the foreground is the reservoir bypass channel that is flowing with water after a couple of days of recent rain, down on its way to the River Goyt in the valley below. When the reservoir is back in use this water’s first course off the hills will be into the reservoir. If the reservoir is full the excess will again flow this way, down to a new channel that will be constructed across the park and out into the Goyt.

PHOTOS: COLIN WAREING Low water levels at the Bosley Reservoir where essential safety works have been carried out.

CRT has put up this notice to reassure people that the lodge is safe. Right: Near the reservoir is the Todd’s Brook Lodge which was used by the reservoir keeper at one time. It was completed in 1881, a year after the Peak Forest Canal which the reservoir feeds water into. As the Canal & River Trust was working on a plan for the repair of the reservoir local concerns were raised as to the future of the lodge. Now CRT has acquired the lodge and it will be used as the improvement project headquarters. It is interesting that nowadays it is called Toddbrook compared with the original name of Todd’s Brook.