HIRE COMPANIES TELL that their boats are trapped in the sections of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal between closed flights.
All the flights on the waterway are closed through lack of water, leaving hire business and boaters stranded, believing they can be trapped for months, Janet Friend reports.
Holidays cancelled
Boat hire companies have seen holidays cancelled and a massive drop in passing trade in their boatyards, with such as Silsden Boats, which has 21 hire boats, seen most of its holiday bookings cancelled or relocated to other parts of the country.
This hire business that was recently bought by Anglo Welsh, has many locations, and so is in the position to offer other locations, that a smaller company cannot.
Adrian Sirr, lead engineer at Anglo Welsh at Silsden, told the BBC that it was only because the company is country-wide that it has managed to weather this drought, he telling:
Disappointed
"Customers are disappointed. A lot wish to go down the Bingley Five and Three Rise and a lot of people come from all over the world.
"We are still offering three days bookings, customers have been going up to Skipton, every customer has come back saying they have loved it.
"If we had still been a private company we would not have survived this summer, there is no way.
With a customer remarking:
"Anglo Welsh have saved us by being able to transfer bookings to elsewhere in the country."