Reservoirs out of action and dry spring weather have led to opening hours restrictions on certain locks - and two flights have been reduced to two days open per week. Work to keep reservoirs and associated spillways, weirs, valves and pipework up to the standards required by external examining bodies has meant that on four waterways reservoirs have had to be drained, affecting supplies to canals. Worst hit are Marple and Bosley flights on the Peak Forest and Macclesfield canals. They are fed by Toddbrook Reservoir, where rebuilding work is just starting after 2019's major spillway failure in extreme weather, and Bosley Reservoir where improvement work has just finished. Both flights were reduced to three days a week in early April, cut to two days from 23 April. Bosley Locks open on Sundays and Thursdays at 8.30am with last entry at 1pm, while Marple flight operates from 8.30 to 12 noon (last entry) on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Meanwhile on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, locks between Wigan and Skipton open daily from 10am with last entry at 5pm (except Blackburn Locks, 4pm). Reservoir works have also depleted supplies to the Huddersfield Narrow and Chesterfield canals but with no impact on opening times yet, although they are being kept under review.
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