In January Scottish Canals announced that they could not afford to repair two bridges in the centre of the Forth and Clyde Canal which were being closed to boat traffic indefinitely. Now they have announced another bridge closure, this one in Glasgow, plus a further reduction of lock opening days and times.

Falkirk Wheel

This will severely impact boaters and hire firm activities since boaters will only have one half of the Forth & Clyde Canal available to them. There is concern that if sections of canal are closed for any significant amount of time, other structures such as nearby locks and other moveable bridges will deteriorate through lack of use, resulting in even more funds required for repairs in the future.

The Forth &  Clyde and Union canals and the Falkirk Wheel were reopened as a cross Scotland route to great fanfare and celebrations  in 2001 after taking £83.5 million of National Lottery and Millennium funding. They had been closed to through traffic in 1963 and the reopening of these deep and wide Scottish Lowland Canals recreated a 69 mile waterway route running from City to City and Sea to Sea. In 2011 they were upgraded to cruiseways from remainder canals which gave Scottish Canals the responsibility to maintain them at current levels, something it no longer seems to be capable of doing.

In a letter to Scottish Canals, IWA outlined why the indefinite closure of the coast to coast canal was unacceptable, and they are due to meet with them to discuss further. The National Chairman, Ivor Caplan, intends to repeat the call for repairs to these bridges to be carried out as a matter of urgency in order for Scottish Canals to fulfil its statutory requirement as navigation authority to keep the Lowland canals in full working order.

As a follow up to their original announcement and subsequent to further technical investigations, Scottish Canals have said that Twechar Lift Bridge could have a temporary repair, which would allow it to be safely operated on a limited basis over the summer. Bonnybridge Lift Bridge may be able to be operated on a one-off or very occasional basis. Scottish Canals states that it is unlikely they will find a solution that allows normal use until additional funds are available, so these arrangements are to enable any boat owner who is currently affected to move their boat to a different location should they wish to do so.

The Chief Executive Officer of Scottish Canals Steve Dunlop is leaving in May. During his twelve years in charge Scottish Canals have won awards from the Scottish Government for meeting a range of ‘national well-being’ targets. However this time last year there was a crisis (see our report) when it was feared there might be no hire boats on Scottish Canals after 2017 as the main operator said it was being forced to close due to licensing increases and changes to Falkirk Wheel operations. Capercaillie Cruisers, who also operate ABC, Black Prince and Marine Cruises boats, said their ‘relationship with Scottish Canals had broken down’ and they no longer had ‘any confidence about growth or long term sustainability’.

Scottish Canals eventually backed down on some of their licensing increases and operating changes and the 2018 season was expected to run normally, but this latest double blow could be the final nail in the coffin of hire boats on the Scottish Lowland Canals.

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