Drought leaves boat dwellers stranded on canal

Boat owners and businesses stranded on a 17-mile (27km) stretch of drought-affected canal say they could be trapped for months.

The locks at Gargrave, near Skipton, and the Bingley Five Rise Locks on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, are closed due to a lack of water, leaving boat-dwellers stranded between those points.

Clive Burton, who was on his way to Wigan but is now living on his boat in Skipton indefinitely, said: "We were passing through on our way to Leeds but I think it might be September, could even be October."

The Canal and River Trust, which operates the network, said the water level was much lower than normal but the routes were unlikely to run dry.

Boat hire companies have seen holidays cancelled and a drop in passing trade in their boatyards.

Silsden Boats, which has 21 hire boats, has seen most of its holiday bookings cancelled or relocated to other parts of the country.

The former family-run boatyard was recently bought by Anglo Welsh, a large narrow boat company.

Adrian Sirr, lead engineer at Anglo Welsh (Silsden), said it was only because the company is country-wide that it has managed to weather this drought.

He said: "Customers are disappointed.

"A lot wish to go down the Bingley Five and Three Rise and a lot of people come from all over the world.

"We are still offering three-day bookings, customers have been going up to Skipton, every customer has come back saying they have loved it.

"If we had still been a private company we would not have survived this summer, there is no way.

"Anglo Welsh have saved us by being able to transfer bookings to elsewhere in the country."

He added, laughing: "We are hoping for eight weeks minimum of continual rain."

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is 127 miles (204km) long and was built more than 200 years ago.

Reservoirs up in the Pennines supply it with water, but at the end of June the Canal and River Trust suspended lock use between Wigan and Leeds because operating a lock uses a lot of water.

Swing bridges can still be operated as normal and the towpaths are fully open so boats can move freely between sets of locks.

That means anyone on a boat between Gargrave and Bingley is stuck on the 17-mile stretch for now.

Pennine Cruisers in Skipton is a small family-run business.

Last year bosses decided to make the business more drought-resistant.

Bosses sold off their fleet of weekly hire boats and now the company concentrates on day hire, skippered boat trips and a dry dock where boat maintenance is carried out.

It means that, despite the lock closure, two thirds of their business can still operate.

Zoe Venn, one of the directors, said: "In hindsight it was definitely the right decision.

"If we hadn't made that decision we would have lots of boats just sitting here unable to go anywhere that we had massive overheads for, and staff that were paid to run them.

"So we would be in not a very good position at all."

Pendle Witch Sweets is a floating sweet shop that usually operates on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

Owner Patrick Creaven made the decision eight weeks ago to relocate and run his business from the Aire and Calder Navigation to avoid becoming trapped.

He said: "Unfortunately lots of our friends are now stuck in various parts of the Leeds-Liverpool, grounded, not going anywhere.

"Our home mooring is the highest point on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, so it's all got to fill from the top down, so we could be one of the last to get back."

Steve Desadeleer in Skipton has lived on his boat for nine years and was on his way to Wigan.

He said: "I could actually move between here and Bingley but I don't want to be too long in Bingley, it's too hilly."

Meanwhile Tim Hooper, stuck at the top of the Bingley Five Rise Locks, said he had been there for five weeks so far.

"It's a nice spot to be stuck, if you're going to be stuck," he said.

"It's a little bit frustrating, we like to be moving, we don't normally stop in one spot for more than a few days but there is nothing we can do about it.

"It's our home so we are making the best of it."

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