To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will take steps to ensure that the Leeds and Liverpool Canal remains open; and if she will allocate funding to increase the level of maintenance of that canal.

Allocation of funding for the maintenance of the Leeds and Liverpool canal is a matter for British Waterways, which maintains its waterways using a risk based approach in order to ensure that its network remains in a reasonable and safe condition.

The present primary closure is due to severe drought causing depletion of the reservoirs feeding the canal, and British Waterways is doing all it can to conserve water levels. It will reopen the canal as soon as sufficient water supplies become available.