For almost three years, visiting boats have been unable to moor at Trevor Basin, near Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, on the Llangollen Canal. The Inland Waterways Association’s Shrewsbury District & North Wales Branch have been campaigning to correct this.
“WE have been in the ridiculous situation where visiting boats cannot moor at Trevor Basin, in the heart of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal World Heritage Site,” explained branch chairman Michael Haig. “This mustn’t be allowed to continue, so this branch is campaigning to correct this unacceptable arrangement.
“Since September 2021, the branch has been engaging with the business boating team at Canal & River Trust’s Wales and South Wales region, initially regarding the planning application submitted to Wrexham County Borough Council (WCBC) to permit the relocation of the Anglo Welsh hire base from the western side of the basin to a newly-built facility in the western arm of the so-called ‘tuning fork,’ north of Bridge 29, Scotch Hall Bridge.
“Despite repeated requests for sight of a layout plan to demonstrate the intended provision of replacement visitor moorings, regrettably none was forthcoming, although in June 2022, CRT W&SW informed ius that ‘our design team are in the process of creating a mooring plan of the newly organised basin area, which will show the new visitor mooring designations.’
“They added that ‘there is likely to be a short period of reduced visitor mooring capacity during the period of the works as we transition everything across – but we’ll of course keep that to a minimum.’
“In October 2022, still without sight of the promised layout plan, we learned that the ‘reduced visitor mooring capacity’ actually meant nil visitor moorings, but we were again assured that their suspension would be a ‘short-term closure.’
“So, here we are, three years later, and the ‘short-term closure’ is still in place with no apparent end in sight. The new Anglo Welsh reception building and wharf appear to be well advanced, externally at least, but there is no sign of the hire base relocating from its present site and at the time of writing, CRT is unable to give us a timing for the move, except to suggest that it won’t be in 2025.
“Part of the problem would appear to be that the transfer of the hire base seems to be the work of the business boating team in CRT W&SW, but the responsibility for visitor moorings lies with the boating and customer service group in CRT’s West Midlands region, which manages the water space, even in North Wales.
“It’s also perhaps worth noting that during the course of this saga so far, we have dealt with three different business boating managers in CRT W&SW, and there have been three boating and customer service managers in CRT WM.
“The CRT’s own public-facing map of available facilities at Trevor Basin continues to show visitor spaces, albeit incorrectly designated as 14-day moorings, on the towpath side near the CRT visitor centre.”
The branch’s campaign continues and asks that anyone affected by the lack of visitor moorings at Trevor Basin to contact the CRT West Midlands directly to raise their concerns.
At the time of this issue going to print, the Canal & River Trust had not responded to a request for comment.
The branch’s 2026 calendar is available to purchase now, priced £8 plus shipping, from https://iwa-shrewsburynorthwales.sumupstore.com. Mail order is also available by emailing [email protected]
