Concerns raised about 16-month closure of Forth & Clyde Canal

The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) has expressed concern over a planned 16-month closure of the eastern section of Scotland’s Forth & Clyde Canal, affecting the 15 locks near Falkirk.

The IWA, the only independent, national charity campaigning for Britain’s canals and rivers, says it is ‘deeply concerned’ about the length of the closure planned for 15 locks near Falkirk at the eastern end of the Forth & Clyde Canal where it joins the River Carron and the Firth of Forth.

This closure, set to run from November 2024 to March 2026, is due to a funding shortfall from the Scottish Government for necessary lock repairs and gate installations.

According to the IWA, although Scottish Canals has funding to build the necessary replacement lock gates, the Scottish Government has not yet made available the funds to fit them and for associated lock repairs. If all the funding had been available together, the work could have been completed much more quickly.

While Scottish Canals has secured funds for new lock gates, the additional funds needed for installation and repairs to the locks themselves have not yet been provided.

As reported in MIN, Fund Britain’s Waterways, a coalition of organisations representing hundreds of thousands of users and supporters of inland waterways, said in July 2023 that funding cuts will have a ‘devastating’ impact on the waterways.

The Forth & Clyde Canal was constructed in the late 18th century. The canal declined in the second half of the 20^th century and was finally closed in 1963. In March 1999, National Lottery Funding, totalling £100 million, was procured to reopen the navigation and the process of decay was reversed: new channels have been engineered, blockages circumnavigated, and more than 30 bridges rebuilt to reinstate the coast-to-coast waterway see today.

Across the waterway’s 34 miles, there is a total of 39 locks, many of which have not received major repairs since the canal’s reopening. The closure affects the section from Lock 16 near the Falkirk Wheel to Lock 2 near the Kelpies, with several lock chambers requiring dewatering and detailed investigations due to the complex and deteriorating timber construction.

The repairs will allow the re-gating of five of the fifteen locks in the flight and a thorough investigation of all the locks themselves. This section of the navigation includes several short pounds that will be totally dewatered (preventing navigation) thereby making the whole operation more efficient.

In an early design by prominent engineer John Smeaton, much of this end of the waterway crossed unstable ground, and the locks were constructed on what were effectively timber rafts using pitch pine. While it is not unusual to find wooden floors to lock, running the timbers under the lock walls for added stability is uncommon.

Timbers forming the lock floors are, in places, in poor condition with significant holes visible. These are relatively easy to replace, but the condition of the timber, hidden under the masonry that forms the lock chambers, poses a large unknown.

While funding is now in place for the five sets of lock gates, money still needs to be found to cover the cost of their installation and to underwrite any issues in this highly unusual construction that are uncovered along the way. It is this considerable uncertainty that dictates such an extended closure, as current diving investigations can only determine the extent of lock-related works and the state of the visible sections of the timber flooring.

Scottish Canals has been in touch with Transport Scotland, demonstrating that navigation is a public rather than a private benefit and, therefore, deserves financial support from the government. This position is supported by RYA Scotland, the Lowland Canals Association, and IWA. IWA agrees that the Scottish government should recognise the value of navigation to the public as a general principle, together with the value of the Forth & Clyde Canal as a sea-to-sea link.

Sue O’Hare, Chair of IWA’s Navigation Committee, says:

“Through Fund Britain’s Waterways, IWA is campaigning for adequate national and local government funding for all of Britain’s navigable rivers and canals to ensure that future generations can continue to enjoy their many benefits. The circumstances surrounding the Scottish Lowland Canals are unique, but the need for funding is universal.”