A thank you to County Councillor Chris Pitt for forwarding this update by Fiona Shipp, Canal Manager, Basingstoke Canal Authority, on the state of the canal.
The weather has been bit of a nightmare to say the least and the rangers have been working throughout Christmas to keep water levels safe and trying to deal with trees as they come down. I currently have a list of 45 trees that still need to be dealt with and the canal is blocked in at least 14 locations at present. I have 2 teams working today and brought in extra staff for the rest of this week to try and deal with the backlog. It is however going to be over a week for us to clear this up and more trees are still falling!
Suffice to say I would not advise going out on the canal at the moment as you won’t get far!
The towpath is currently being blocked by numerous trees that have fallen across it. Some are passable, but many are not. I wouldn’t advise using the towpath at the moment while the winds are still high and we haven’t managed to get to all the hung up trees which could pose a danger. We will of course be dealing with these as a priority.
Water levels are currently being held low to allow us to manage the water as safely as possible.
Lightwater 