Our Boater Report 2024 gives an overview of how we generated income and our expenditure during 2023/24 to maintain navigation on our amazing heritage network of over 10,000 individual structures including locks, bridges, aqueducts and reservoirs, many up to 250 years old.
It was a year of near record spend on charitable activity, but one that saw the continued effect of climate change taking its toll on our ageing canal infrastructure. In 2023/24 we spent close to £49 million on around 80 large maintenance and repair projects, and our skilled teams of carpenters, stone masons and bricklayers completed further construction projects, at a cost of around £20 million.
Dealing with emergencies From leaks in embankments and waterway walls, storm damage, flooding and blue green algae, to bridge strikes by road vehicles, vandalism, fly tipping and pollution incidents, read how we’re dealing with some of the dozens of emergencies across our network every week.
The impact of climate change
Our changing climate continued to have a massive impact on our waterways. The succession of named storms wreaked havoc on our network. Thousands of trees were blown down, towpaths were washed away, banks and culverts collapsed, and landslides occurred. A breach on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Burscough in Lancashire cost over £270,000 to
repair. In Leicester, the River Soar breached several times at Blue Bank lock, eroding the towpath and pushing the pilings over. The eastern end of the Kennet & Avon Canal was closed for several months due to extremely high water levels, widespread damage to towpaths, banks and lock walls, and extensive silt deposits. There were two major landslips on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal: on the embankment at the northern portal of Dunhamstead Tunnel; and just south of Shortwood Tunnel. There was also a major slip in the cutting at Easenhall on the Oxford Canal, requiring over 4,000 cubic metres of material to be cleared, and costing over £1 million to resolve.
Download the report: 2024 Boater Report
