Community leaders, residents and businesses in the Crinan Canal area are claiming victory after Scottish Canals confirmed that it can finish the essential winter works programme in mid-April of 2024 instead of mid-May.
The community had protested that the proposed seven-month closure was too long and would lead to extended disruption for residents and canal users – and loss of income for local businesses.
They had demanded the work be finished by Good Friday on March 29, 2024, so that business can resume at the Easter holidays.
“We were aiming for seven weeks and we got five weeks so we have to feel it is quite a significant victory,” said North Knapdale Community Council secretary Richard Stein.
Laurie Piper, Head of Customer Experience at Scottish Canals, said in a letter to the community: “We are delighted to let you know that we have revised our winter works completion date – we are now working to a canal reopening date in Mid-April 2024, a month earlier than we originally advised, and a completion date of Mid-May 2024 rather than Mid-June 2024 …
“… our engineering team and our principal contractors Mackenzie Construction have been working hard behind the scenes with support from our partners Argyll and Bute Council, to investigate new methods of working to further reduce the impact of the works.
“We are pleased to have now received approval for the commissioning of an innovative ‘over-lock crane platform’ …
“Additionally, Argyll and Bute Council have now approved our Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO). With this critical confirmation now in place alongside the approval of the over-lock crane platform, we have been able to revise the works programme.”
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