It would have been hard to miss the arrival the second named storm to hit our shores in the 2024-25 storm season. While Ashley, the first to arrive last month, kept its impact to a relatively small part of the country, the force of Bert was felt across the country last weekend with flood alerts and warnings continuing this week.
As you’ll expect, Storm Bert’s high winds and torrential rain impacted waterways right across the country too:
In the East Midlands, on Sunday, fallen trees were reported on the Market Harborough Arm, at Bugbrooke on the Grand Union Canal and quite a few other locations. At Stoke Bruerne, as rain continued into the evening, there were fears, as pictured below, that the canal might overtop the towpath. The on-call team arrived onsite at 9pm and continued, over the next five hours, carefully managing the water levels with the on-call supervisor and regional operations manager not leaving until nearly 2am once the water levels were back under control again.
On the southern end of the Grand Union Canal, choppy waters and exceptionally strong winds cast boats adrift with the regional on-call team rescuing them to more secure moorings. As you can guess, across London & South East, more trees were also blown down, notably at Lower Heyford on the South Oxford Canal where the falling tree hit an unoccupied boat, pictured below. Too much water was also an issue. Many locks had water flowing around and over them with flooding at Banbury.
In the North West the main area of concern was at Northwich where, in the early evening of Sunday, the Environment Agency started to deploy additional flood defences. Multi-agency meetings followed at which we were able to confirm that all of our available assets were set to convey as much water as possible away from the at-risk areas.
In Wales & South West, despite working day and night, there was overtopping on the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal in multiple places. Meanwhile, over on the Kennet & Avon Canal, it was much the same. Most locks to the east of Great Bedwyn had water going over or around them – in a lot of cases both. Frustratingly, and no doubt replicated in other parts of the network, winter stoppage works were inundated with water and work can only begin again once dams have been reset and chambers pumped out, see pictures below.
In the West Midlands, the Llangollen Canal rose three inches with the historic culverts underneath, not designed to cope with such extreme weather caused by climate change, meant that a nearby hotel car park flooded. Elsewhere the River Severn, in Worcester, rose over 3m in 24 hours, the most significant one-day increase in recent years. Trees suffered as well with many blown over and blocking navigation.
At the opposite end of the country, in Yorkshire & North East, overtopping was an issue on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal with the local on-call team spending their Saturday evening managing water levels. As waters rose in Doncaster throughout the evening and on the South Sheffield & Yorkshire Navigations they then headed to shut the Don Doors flood gates which meant that, the next day, water needed to be drained from the rising Stainforth & Keadby Canal into the River Trent. Unsurprisingly another raft of trees were also upended.
The immense effort of those responding, staff and volunteers, to Storm Bert, can’t be underestimated and, while we’re still waiting for waters to recede in some locations to inspect the damage, they deserve a huge thank you!
Stoke Bruerne Storm Bert Nov 2024
Boat licence fees for 2025-26
Every year at this time we announce our licence fees for next year. From 1 April 2025 licence fees for both private boat owners and boating businesses will rise by 4%, based on the latest Bank of England forecasts that inflation will remain at around 2.5% through until April 2025.
Storm Bert has had a significant impact on the network and it’s too early to exactly pin down how that might affect our schedule of winter stoppages and maintenance. As the first article shows though it will definitely lead to some being delayed.
That being said, in the spirit of ‘make hay while the sun shines’, we’ve been able to crack on with some big pieces of work before Bert appeared. Here are a couple of examples.
80 tonne crane needed for 6.5 tonne lock gates
A couple of editions ago we talked about some of the work that’s been going on at Holt Lock on the River Severn. Take a few minutes to hear from construction manager, Mark Abraham, who explains some of the challenges – such as getting an 80 tonne crane down a small track in rural Worcestershire – as well as the broad range of works:
Muck moved from Monmouthshire (& Brecon Canal)
With a storm fresh in our collective mind, it’s easy to picture how large quantities of sediment form in our waterways. Washed in when increasingly frequent extreme weather occurs, nearby watercourses bring in the stuff that ends up making the top too close to the bottom. One example from Storm Bert could be found at Morlas Brook on the Llangollen Canal.
While these unpredictable storms can bring in sediment we’ve continued to fight the good fight with a six-week dredging programme on the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal to improve navigation. This is part of our £8 million network-wide dredging programme.
Taking place between 23 September and 5 November, about 300 tons of sediment was removed from four different locations along the canal.
The dredging has improved the depth in the canal at Llangattock, Talybont, Pencelli and Brynich, and will also be a benefit if you plan to moor in these areas or use the nearby winding holes.
The 200-year-old canal is on many boaters’, both private and holidaymaking, bucket list. Aside from being able to cruise through the beautiful Usk Valley and a World Heritage Site, the associated health benefits of being by or on water and an invaluable wildlife corridor, the canal contributes £17 million a year to the local economy.
Paul Fox, senior project manager, said: "We identified from boaters’ feedback and our surveys that dredging these sections was a high priority, so we are delighted to have made these improvements. Dredging is part of the maintenance we carry out to keep canals open and available, and boaters will benefit from better navigation and improved mooring.
"The Mon & Brec is such a key feature of the stunning Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. As a charity we are doing what we can, fighting the challenges of the age of the canal and the impact of climate change, to keep the canal alive for boaters and the local communities it runs through for years to come."
As part of the winter works programme we’re also delivering a series of maintenance improvements to other parts of the canal which includes making repairs at Brecon Basin, Llanfoist Embankment, Llanover and Llangattock.
Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal dredging November 1
Working for boaters – in numbers
With over 2,000 miles of canals and rivers it’s nigh on impossible to list all the things we’ve been doing over the last fortnight to keep navigations open (I’m sure you haven’t got a spare couple of days to read the entire list!) but a scan of our stoppage notifications shows that we’ve…
Description
In the last fortnight
Since we started reporting (12 Jul 24)
Removed wind-blown trees that were impeding navigation
19
120
Carried out general lock repairs such as repairing quoins and brickwork
3
82
Repaired bridges
4
44
Winter stoppage programme work affecting navigation (such as lock gate replacement)
9
44
Repaired pump out stations
3
33
Fixed lock paddles
0
30
Fixed customer service facilities (such as toilets)
2
24
Carried out dive survey/repair
10
22
Repaired Elsans
0
19
Carried out dredging project
2
16
Fixed (or in the process of fixing) embankments
0
15
Repaired sluices
3
14
Carried out boater safety activities (such as placing buoys around hazards etc.)
3
12
Repaired culverts
1
8
Carried out piling project
0
7
Bathymetric survey (a water-based survey that maps the depths and shapes of underwater terrain)
1
7
Removed sunken boats
0
4
Worked to control invasive species (Pennywort, Duckweed etc.)
0
3
Tunnel inspections
1
3
Stoppages due to nesting birds
0
2
Removed sunken car
0
2
Annoyingly had to clear illegal fly tipping (well, one that required a stoppage, there were plenty more!)
0
1
Conducted/facilitated bridge inspections
13
138
The above list doesn’t include any work conducted purely on towpaths, water management (which there’s always a lot of!), major reservoir projects and so on – it’s just a flavour of what we’ve been doing to help boaters keep moving on the cut!
Maintenance, repair and restoration work this weekend
As you’ll know there are times when we need to fix things that unexpectedly break. Of course, you’ll notice that the list below is much longer now that we’re in the winter stoppage season! So, below, you’ll find a list of navigations that have ongoing restrictions that may affect you if you’re planning to get out on the water this weekend:
When restrictions to navigation happen, we get them up on to our website as soon as we can – always best to have a scan before you set off. You can find out how to get stoppage notification alerts on your smartphone in this article.
If you have any questions about a specific closure, or spot an error in our system, please get in touch.
Healthwatch
A new initiative is seeking to find out more about the health of people who live afloat. While the service provision is based in Warwickshire, the team would like to hear, via a survey, from all liveaboard boaters regardless of their location. The results of the survey will help with the development of health services specifically for those who live afloat.
The poster below speaks for itself but to jump straight to the survey, click here.
Lots to talk about – watch the latest Boaters’ Forum
Earlier this week we held an online National Boater Forum and, as you may remember, in the last edition, we shared the details of our ten-point Better Boating Plan. One of the points includes that ‘We’ll provide more opportunities for boaters to meet and speak with our colleagues…’. Well, before reading when you’ll next be able to join us at a forum or meeting, you might like to catch up on the forum:
As promised there’ll be plenty of opportunity for you to chat with us about the issues that matter to you in your boating life. Some potential upcoming dates for your calendar may be:
River Trent Boater Forum, on Mon 16 Dec 2024, at Newark Rowing Club, Farndon Road, Newark-on-Trent, NG24 4SE
Disabled Boater Forum, one on Tue 17 Dec 2024 and another on Wed 19 Feb 2025. Online meetings.
The above highlights just a few of our upcoming meetings. Find our full calendar on our website.
Give as you live
One of your fellow boaters has been in touch to suggest that other likeminded boaters might be interested in learning more about ‘Give as you Live Online’. It’s a relatively straightforward way to support us as you go about your usual shopping routines. The following explanation is taken straight from the ‘Give as you Live Online’ website:
1. Sign up
Choose a charity and enter a few details about yourself. You can start to raise money for charity immediately!
2. Browse
Start your shop from Give as you Live Online by finding the store you'd like to shop with on our website, app or Donation Reminder.
3. Shop
Once you've clicked through, just shop as normal. Everything will look the same, but as long as you've visited the store from us, they'll know you're a Give as you Live Online shopper.
4. Raise
We'll automatically add a donation to your account and pay your chosen charity.
So, if you haven’t started your Christmas shopping yet, we’d be hugely appreciative if, when you do start, you’re also donating to us. Thanks! More information can be found on the ‘Give as you Live Online’ website.
Last Edited: 29 November 2024
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