More bullshit from cart's dept of spin

They are directly blaming an "unknown boater" for the middle which breach ?

That's really taking the piss. Canals are designed to withstand a bit of abuse and paddles left open etc.

I notice no suggestion this could have been caused by someone running engine in gear while tied up. I think that could easily be what weakened the canal bank.

so we'll get members of public reading this then wandering around locks and telling boaters how to do it and that leaving paddles up destroys canals.

Oh dear. This is going to get ugly.

Time for a sailing boat

No, they don’t mention paddles, just that the boater left the gates open at both ends such that “Trees were torn from their roots, hundreds of fish died and boats were lifted from their moorings by the mini tsunami.”  
This is what you get when an arts degree graduate writes about something that is slightly technical.  

If CRT have started to feed ‘fake news’ to various media departments then this might finally encourage the boating organisations to start a public media campaign to expose what the charity are doing, or rather not doing, with their funding.

Well one can but hope I suppose...

The information request below was submitted on 16 August. So far the Trust has not responded.

As to the general question as to why C&RT is so keen to blame anyone but themselves for emergency navigation closure, I suggest reading -

www.thefloater.org/the-floater-august-2018/crt-issues-threats-to-avoid-answering-questions

I have taken matters into my own hands and hacked C&RT's stoppage database.

Actual emergency navigation closure days figures will be published tomorrow alongside C&RT's "closure days" figures taken from annual reports.

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Dear Canal & River Trust,

There has been much speculation as to the cause of the breach of the Shropshire Union Canal which occurred on 15th March 2018 between the Wardle Lock & Stanthorne Lock, Middlewich, Cheshire. Various reasons have been put forward and this has included badgers weakening the canal bank or even that the lock paddles were left open.

Environmental Information Regulations 2004 request:
a) Please can you supply the engineers survey & investigation reports which the C&RT have which relate to the cause of the breach which occurred on 15th March 2018 between the Wardle Lock & Stanthorne Lock, in Middlewich.

I visited the breach the following day and I feel the following is a much more likely explanation:

1) A small section of the Southern side of the Shropshire Union canal bank immediately East of the aqueduct failed and collapsed into the canal due to its poor/weak condition.

2) The collapse of the Southern side caused a blockage in the canal, and there is evidence that excess water (splash or overflow) flowed down the Northern bank just 5 or 10 metres to the East of where the main breach happened.

3) The damage to the Southern canal bank allowed water ingress which undermined the canal bed by gradually washing away material which eventually led to a catastrophic failure and breach of the Northern canal bank.

b) Generally speaking (and from the perspective of the C&RT) is there an insurance exclusion clause in place, or any financial (including the C&RT having to pay out compensation) or any funding penalty if a canal breach is found to have been caused by a lack of maintenance rather than some deliberate or accidental act?

Yours faithfully,

Harry RandomBTW,

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They claim in the latest annual report and a recent boaters update that they spent £132m maintaining the waterways last year. However, they seem to be very reluctant to provide a breakdown of that figure according to narrowboatworld. 

Exactly.
This is what bothers me the most. I seem to remember there was another story recently about the K&A and someone "leaving a lock open" or similar. These stories reach a lot of people many of whom are clueless about how canals work but they are being told the canal system is "theirs" which it is as its a national asset.

Blaming boaters like this is going to cause problems.