The 39-mile (62.7 km) waterway was built by canal pioneer James Brindley and is considered to be the first canal contructed in England which is still navigable – having opened in 1761.
Narrowboat owner Dave Prunty told the he remembers hearing “an enormous bang” from his mooring near Little Bollington when the section collapsed 20 months ago – and said it had taken “far longer than it should” to fix.
He said there had been “too much time taken up” with “petty politics” and “too many people trying to get involved when really they should have just got a contractor”.
Sewage from Little Bollington had to be delivered each day by tanker to the treatment works on the other side of the canal until earlier this year, after the breach severed a sewer.
A meeting of Little Bollington with Agden Community Council was told the canal company had hoped to complete the work in December, if it had begun in August.
In August the canal company said it “remains committed to progressing the project as quickly as possible and is working closely with all parties to resolve the outstanding requirements”.
An access road is currently being built to the breach site, but no updated date for the commencement or completion of the work has been given.
Kerry said they had received very limited communication from the canal company and Peel, adding: “We’re just staggering through hoping that they might actually do something.”
Liam added: “We have reached out a couple of times and it just seems to be tumbleweed – you never get anything back from them.”
