Gloucester docks. We have continued correspondence with CRT to keep up the pressure on them for a plan for Gloucester Docks. The G and S is inaccessible at the moment. They have issued a press release FAQ and you can read that here. There is ongoing work here to understand what is happening to silt and water flows, and the commercial arrangements with Bristol Water. It is not clear whether the water supply contract is viable in the current circumstances, and whether there are lessons to be learned. Here we are with the Bristol Water and the Llangollen water supplies in trouble and enormous emergency costs for CRT to keep them going. Who will pay in the future?
NNEditor John comments: Gloucester Sharpness was designed and built as a commercial waterway for vessels up to 600 tons to get to Gloucester, without having to negotiate the treacherous tidal link. It needed 16 bridge keepers and two lock keepers. Gloucester lock requires ~ 1.3 m litres of water. Sharpness probably a bit more depending on vessel size and tide height. Bristol Water now takes around 130 m litres a day from the canal. The advantage of supplying water is that no overheads of lock keepers or bridge keepers are incurred. The pumping up of water from the Severn (and lack of shipping) in quantities not considered at the design stage will cause the stretch to be unnavigable without annual extreme dredging. Is the opening of the Stroud canal going to help water supply? Many boaters would welcome the trip into Stroud but not if the only access is via the tidal Severn. Sadly, I fear that unless some alternative funding becomes available the G &S is in danger of being abandoned for navigation. The current state must be affecting the marinas and workshops along the canal and in the docks. I’m very glad that we moved off the canal after many happy years moored in Sharpness and Saul junction marinas.