Many folk will be aware that the operational status of this waterway has been under the microscope for a few months even if it is not transparently clear whether the financial duress arose directly from, or conveniently coincident with, the DEFRA situation.
Plans were announced that operations would be curtailed to an "on demand or pre-book" status from October to Easter. The local boaters reacted and as a result of the prime efforts of a few people the decisions are now as follows. The nub of winter season operations will be : 1) Closure of the whole waterway on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. 2) A number of G&S bridges will be automated facilitating user operated navigation along a significant part of the canal (7 days). 3) River passages will be subject to timed lock operations Apparently summer operations will be unchanged. There are 14 voluntary redundancies and extra labour will be recruited on a contract basis in the summer. Even if the redundancies were indeed truly "voluntary" the loss of jobs is regrettable. The waterway remains a wonderful cruising facility and a gem in the BW catalogue. The outcome is probably the best local boaters could have hoped for. Long may it last. Please. Beeky
