The incident has been highly distressing for the owners of boats on the stretch of canal with footage online showing the situation unfolding. Heartbreakingly, two boats were washed into the breach hole and there are a further two right next to the hole.
There are a further six boats away from the breach site which are currently not in water, but we are hoping to get those back afloat in the coming days. The incident is no longer declared as a major incident by the emergency services.
Campbell Robb, our chief executive, comments: “Our teams have been on site since the early hours, securing and making the canal safe and assisting the boat owners impacted. The most important thing is that all those affected are safe and, working with the local authority, there is accommodation in place for the people and pets unable to return to their boats this evening.”
The embankment has been subject to our regular inspection regime by our specialist inspectors and engineers, as we do routinely for all our assets. Our charity needs to understand exactly what caused the canal embankment to be undermined and breach in this way alongside the huge and likely lengthy task of rebuilding and then reopening the canal. Although the canal network is very old, breaches of this scale are relatively rare.
