Hundreds attend canal festival at site of breach

Hundreds of people attended a canal festival on Saturday, despite much of the nearby waterway being shut due to a breach just before Christmas last year.

The 25th Whitchurch Canal Festival aimed to encourage more people to use the canal, and included live music, historic and trading boats, and activities.

A major incident was declared after the breach on the Llangollen Canal which saw two boats fall into a hole after water spilled into a nearby field.

"Obviously the breach has had a massive impact on the tourism on the canal but of course it's brought a lot more people in as well to come and see what's going on," said Doug Sealy from the Whitchurch Waterway Trust, which organised the event.

"We want to encourage more people to use the amenity more.

"So it's really important to get people down here."

The event is also being held on Sunday from 10:00 to 16:00 BST.

Tim Harris, director of Paddle Bros, which provides canoe and kayak hire in Shropshire, said an event like the festival "gathered the community in a space that needs to be celebrated."

"I think days like this are absolutely perfect to highlight what's going on [with the breach], the amount of work that's been put into it," he said.

Repair work at the site is ongoing, and is expected to be finished by February, costing the Canal and River Trust about £10m.

Simon Harding, from the trust, said repairing the canal now was a complex job.

"How they built things in the olden days was quite empirical, if they stood up, they stood up," he told the BBC.

"Whereas today we're very much into science and numbers, so that's been a real challenge for us - finding the right materials, to rebuild this embankment, the right techniques as well, but trying to keep things moving on the ground."

The collapsed embankment has been rebuilt in layers, and its structural integrity has been reinforced.

The canal tunnel will be reconstructed in concrete, and temporary dams are in place to isolate the breach site, with a pumping system keeping water flowing.

The breach means that many are stranded along one arm of the canal, with people unable to reach local businesses.

Jane Beaumont, from the Lockside Cafe, said events like the festival helped.

In June, she told the BBC that the collapse had caused her to lose all her summer trade, and made her fear for the future.

"We've really felt it over the summer months with no boats going through, no trade, no tourists."

"We've been trying to do what we can, like things like this."

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