2021 Annual Lockage Report
After Covid restrictions were lifted, most places recorded lockage counts that were close to pre-pandemic levels, although there was little boating in the first four months of 2021. Using 178 comparison sites, the report shows a 39.4% increase in total lockage from 2020 to 2021*. The estimated total lockage of all the Trust’s locks (not just those with lock-counters) was up from 2.65 million in 2020 to 3.70 million in 2021. This is slightly below the 2019 total, before the pandemic affected boating, when there were an estimated 3.96 million lockages. However, this compares a full year with only eight months, as 2021 saw little traffic before May due to the extended lockdown period. The twinned Hillmorton Locks 2 & 3 on the North Oxford Canal saw 8,147 lockages and remained the busiest locks on the English and Welsh system. New Marton on the Llangollen Canal was the second busiest, with 7,457 lockages, and Cholmondeston Lock on the Shropshire Union was third with 7,103 lockages. At the other end of the usage scale, the least number of lockages was at Lock 1, Belan, on the Montgomery Canal (46 lockages), with Lock 1, Graving, on the Dee Branch of the Shropshire Union, at 66 lockages and Carpenter’s Road Lock on the Old River Lea having 78 lockages.
Editorial
Changes afoot
Peter Fellows on upcoming proposals for the BSS and main navigation authorities.
I, like all NABO Councillors, was shocked to hear from John Devonald that he is seriously ill. He has stepped down from his roles with NABO and we all offer him our best wishes.
The future of CRT and the EA waterways will be decided in the next few weeks when the Defra review is submitted for consideration by the Government. As Mike Rodd explains in detail in his Chairman’s column, NABO is committed to supporting continued funding for both organisations. The Council decided that, as part of this support, we should all petition our MPs, asking them to back future funding, and I have included a template for the type of letter that we envisage will have the desired effect.
CRT are talking earnestly to the Government about the renewal of their contract to operate the canal and river system.
Could there possibly be a worse time for CRT to negotiate a financial settlement with DEFRA and the Treasury?
But they are trying, and it is time for us to press our MPs to support CRT, despite our concerns about the organisation.
Remember that going back to Government-controlled BW would be a nightmare, just like the current EA.
So we need you all to write to your MP.
We have prepared a draft letter and you can find it here.
Please take time to personalise it and send it off in the next week or two.
It will make a difference.
Remember you to be effective, you should write to your own MP, quoting your address.
A public consultation by the Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) on proposals within a clarified and improved set of BSS Examination Checking Procedures (ECP) opened today Monday 7 March and will run to Tuesday 31 May 2022 and is available on its website www.boatsafetyscheme.org/ECPconsultation
The revisions to the BSS ECP are the product of many months of work by the BSS stakeholder committees and the revisions are commended by the BSS Management Committee. They apply to checks used in the examination of Privately owned and managed boats in private use as well boats subject to the 2017 Hire Boat Requirements.
Read more: BSS consultation on two new examination requirements
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