Victor is right when he attributes the closure of Derwent Mouth Lock to the leaky top and bottom gates, writes Dave Brewin.
But wrong when he says there have been no issues with water levels on the section fed by the Trent.
As someone who moors their boat at Swarkestone I have visited it several times recently to find inches of air space under the counter making it impossible to move the boat.
The cause is evident; both the top and bottom gates at Swarkestone Lock leak badly with the effect on water levels being the same as leaving a paddle open on both sets of gates. Eventually someone in CRT West Midlands lets some water down from Alrewas and the levels recover for a time but the cycle just repeats itself over and over again.
Personally, I am not convinced by CRT attributing the current rash of restrictions and closures being all down to the recent dry weather. Sure there hasn't been much rain for a few months but, in over 40 years of boating I can remember similar dry spells but never causing the level of issues we are seeing now.
Also, my observations are that there are far fewer boats moving than there were a decade ago so much less use of locks. It's only a few months since they were complaining about too much water!
Given the issues with water shortages in the Trent fed section of the Trent & Mersey it seems pretty obvious that one of the causes of the current water shortage, particularly in sections that aren't favoured by a steady feed of river water, is lack of maintenance which allows much of the water to leak away.
I guess we had better get used to it as it's difficult to see maintenance improving any time soon.