THE CLOSURE ON THE OXFORD CANAL has been extended.
It is now being extended beyond Little Bourton Lock 27, Keith Gudgin reports.
Instead of the stoppage being from Claydon Top Lock 17 to Little Bourton Lock 27 it has been extended to Aynho Weir Lock 33, a further nine miles.
Locks currently closed on the South Oxford
Claydon Flight Locks 17-21
Elkington's Lock 22
Varneys Lock 23
Broadmoor Lock 24
Cropredy Lock 25
Slatmill Lock 26
Little Bourton Lock 27
Hardwick Lock 28
Banbury Lock 29
Grants Lock 30
Kings Sutton Lock 31
Nell Bridge Lock 33
Aynho Weir Lock 33.
Closures are necessary
The trust tells these closures are necessary to protect increasingly limited water resources and give the navigation an opportunity to recover, as well as helping preserve canal infrastructure and ecology.
It adds that there may be extreme local circumstances that require us to take immediate action to temporarily close some other stretches on the South Oxford navigation, depending on rainfall.