Canal charity launches emergency appeal 

...following major breach on Trent & Mersey Canal.

The Canal & River Trust is calling on help from the public, following the major breach of the Trent & Mersey Canal at Dutton Hollow, near Preston Brook.  

The Trust reports that the breach came after the unusually heavy downpour of rain last week which swept a section of the 200-year old canal into a nearby farmer’s field.

Engineers from the Canal & River Trust have estimated that the repairs are likely to cost around £1.5 million and are aiming to get the canal re-opened as quickly as possible. 

The charity, which cares for 2,000 miles of canals, rivers and docks in England and Wales, says that it can fund the repair bill from its contingency fund but that this will divert money from other essential maintenance and improvement works.

David Baldacchino, waterway manager for the Canal & River Trust, explains: “As a new charity something of this scale and cost really sets us back, diverting precious resources from other work on the waterways.  While we have a contingency to cover events of this kind it takes away resources from elsewhere.”  

Walter Menzies, Chairman of the Canal & River Trust’s Manchester & Pennines Partnership, adds “The Trent & Mersey Canal is a huge asset to the local area and an engineering marvel, but it was never designed to cope with the exceptional levels of rainfall we have seen this week. 

"Today we are counting the costs of the deluge and asking local people who love the canal to help us overcome this major problem.”  

Anyone wishing to support this emergency appeal to repair the breach can log on to www.canalrivertrust.org.uk/breach or alternately text BREACH to 70800. 

Every penny donated will go directly to repairing the canal.