Canal trust launches fundraiser with Whitchurch collapse repairs set to cost 'several million pounds'
A fundraising appeal has been launched to help fund 'several million pounds' of repairs needed following the Whitchurch canal collapse.
Last week engineers and specialist workers completed the removal of all three boats affected by the catastrophic failure on the Whitchurch section of the Llangollen Canal.
Now attention is turning to the cause of the December collapse, and raising the money to pay for the extensive repairs required.
The Canal and River Trust, which is responsible for the canal, has launched an 'emergency appeal'.
A dedicated webpage set up for the fundraiser says: "The repairs needed will take much of this year and will cost several million pounds.
"Engineers have started investigations into the likely cause of the breach, but the cause of earth embankment failures is not always clear - they are complex structures and it is still too early to be certain."
It adds: "We are incredibly grateful for the support we have already received from the boating community, local people and our other supporters as we respond to this breach. Without your donations, we wouldn't be able to continue our work to maintain and protect our canals.
"These are major works and they weren't in our plans. This rare but catastrophic breach will cost our charity several million to restore the historic infrastructure and public access to the towpath.
"Please donate today to support our vital work in protecting and restoring canals."
Meanwhile, Julie Sharman, Chief Operating Officer of the Canal and River Trust has delivered an update on the work to rescue the stranded boats - and since the catastrophic breach.
She said: "A breach happened on this site on the 21st of December just before Christmas and it was a major failure of the canal embankment where three boats were caught up in the immediate incident. Two of those boats ended up in the bottom of the breach, the third one, pacemaker was actually balanced just here, on the edge.
"The day after the incident we were managing to pull Pacemaker forward in order to ensure it didn't fall away because there is a certain amount of water moving here and that was encouraging an unravelling of parts of the embankment so it was unstable, so we were able to move Pacemaker up and make sure it was safe over Christmas while we regathered our thoughts for the next stage.
"At the same time we also installed overpumping because the Llangollen Canal moves about 30-odd million litres of water a day down to the reservoir at Hurleston in Cheshire where it provides public water drinking supply, but we needed to re-establish the water supply in order to refloat the boats that had been stranded of both sides of the actual canal.
"The pumps went in on this site immediately before Christmas and they managed to refloat the boats on the far side who were stranded - there were about a half dozen boats there and we managed to get those away and floating just before Christmas which was brilliant.
"Between Christmas and New Year our engineers were carrying out inspections on site every day and checking the failure area, looking for any deterioration to make sure everything stayed stable.
"I think one of the key things about this particular incident that has gone to all of our hearts is that it has impacted three boaters really severely, in terms of displacing them from their homes before Christmas. And that has been a really tough thing so we have been trying to look after our boaters and keep in touch and make sure they have what they need through this really difficult time.
"Obviously there's a lot of interest as to why this happened but what we have here is a canal network which is over 200 years old and a changing climate which can impact structures such as this embankment here, so it is really important that we look after this important part of our heritage and the support we get through our funding and through our donors is absolutely essential in ensuring our canals can be here for the next 200 years."
