By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
The charity looking after Nottinghamshire’s canals and waterways fears it may not be able to keep all of them open due to funding cuts and costs associated with climate change damage.
The Canal and River Trust looks after 2,000 miles of canals, reservoirs and waterways across England and Wales.
However it says the job of maintaining them is becoming ever more difficult.
Last year alone freak weather events, such as flooding, caused £1 million in damage to its waterways across the East Midlands and £10m across the whole country.
Around 25 per cent of the trust’s budget comes from the Government, but following a grant review under the Conservative administration, the charity was informed its funding would be reduced by £300m from 2027.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service met Linny Beaumont, the charity’s director for the East Midlands, at Beeston Lock on Wednesday, July 31.
She fears its waterways are facing a “real risk”.
“So every year from 2027 it’s going to go down by five per cent, which means over the course of the next decade we will have a £300m gap in our funding,” she said.
“It all takes money and going forward we just aren’t going to maintain the levels we have got now.”
Ms Beaumont said maintenance is a “never ending battle”, and one that is fought largely by an army of volunteers.
Lock gates typically need replacing every 25 years, and can cost upwards of £100,000.
Replacing bridges over waterways can prove even costlier. The footbridge at Beeston Lock will need replacing within the next two years, and the costs are estimated between £200,000 and £400,000, with inflation.
“When you think about that across 2,000 miles of canals and rivers, it is a massive undertaking for a charity,” she added.
“With climate change what we are seeing is there are more floods and storms in the winter.
“We’ve had massive problems, because as the water rushes down, banks get broken, bridges get damaged, lock gates get damaged, it has a massive impact.
“The important thing about canals is that they help climate change. They cool down cities as they go through urban areas, we can help transfer water from one area to another, and our canals can take flood water away from residents.
“So there are lots of ways we help with the effects we are all feeling, but we are also massively impacted by them and our grant review does not reflect that.”
Ruth McColl, from Beeston, is lead volunteer for the charity’s ‘Towpath Taskforce’.
She has been volunteering for three years and described Nottinghamshire’s canals as “our sea-side”.
“We have met all winter and the condition of the canal with the water levels and the pollution was just unbelievable,” she said.
“On one particular occasion there were dead fish in the canal that we had to report to both the trust and the Environment Agency, just because of the levels of pollution that come down the river when it gets high.
“We’ve all heard about the impacts of sewers overflowing, and the canal was the colour of mud, the navigation was closed, the river was closed, so nobody could go anywhere in boats.
“That was something that happened in the year 2000, and it has perhaps happened once or twice since, but it happened three times this winter alone.”
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was contacted for comment.
