'Our mansion can never be sold because of beauty spot next door that nearly killed us'

A couple say they’ve been unable to sell their beautiful 20-room mansion for years because the adjacent canal, a famous beauty spot, leaks into their land. Charles and Patricia Lester have lived at Llanfoist House beside the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal since 1973.

The house which they bought at the time for £9,000 is at the foot of a very high and steep canal bank 70ft below the canal towpath. They say they have suffered multiple landslides since due to water seeping through the canal banks with the most recent being within the last decade. They say they were lucky to escape one such landslide with their lives.

“Not that we were aware of the significance of any of this at the time we bought the property,” Mr Lester told WalesOnline. “Especially as the canal had no record of leaks or collapses in its previous history. But we very quickly realised there was a constant flow of water from the canal bank.

“Our unlined pond was kept full all through the driest periods with leaks from the canal. At the time we had no idea or warning of the potential danger as would be required these days to be in the estate agent’s details.

“The more recent legislation about declaring such things as subsidence or flood potential has made it impossible for us to sell this large house enabling us to move to a more manageable and comfortable property in our old age.”

It comes after the Canal and River Trust (CRT), which is charged with maintenance of canals and rivers across the UK, said the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal was suffering from a severe water shortage and may have to close.

It has led to the Lesters asking where the water is going and claiming the issue is a huge one for homeowners living beside the canal which runs from Brecon to Cwmbran in Wales. In an interview with WalesOnline Mr Lester asked: “Why has the canal never run out of water before? Why are we talking about this now?”

Due to the leaks the value of their property in the small village of Govilon near Abergavenny has diminished from £1.2m to £750,000. But they say they’re unable to sell it anyway because no-one will touch it once they see the issues the house potentially faces with potential subsidence and integrity of the land around the canal.

Former world-renowned dressmakers Mr and Mrs Lester, aged 84 and 83 and who live in the 20-room property which they can no longer properly look after, believe CRT is partly to blame for the leaky canal. They claim the canal has been poorly maintained ever since the first and worst landslide in 1975 which they say almost killed them.

Recalling what happened then, Mr Lester said: “I came home at lunchtime from work and there were great jets coming from the bottom of the bank. Trish and I were standing in front of the bank and 20,000 tonnes of water came straight at us.

“You don’t run when something like that comes towards you. You can’t. You just pray. Luckily our lives were saved because the trees came roots-first and hit the stone wall and created a sort of dam which diverted the water and the rocks, boulders and debris sideways.”

Mr Lester explained that the canal had become derelict in the sixties and was closed but that boating enthusiasts got together at the time and asked British Waterways as it was then if the canal could be opened back up for tourism and leisure, which British Waterways agreed to.

“When the canal was opened originally in 1799 it would have been clay-lined with puddling clay which was very effective and didn’t leak,” he said.

“But in reopening the canal to boaters in the modern world British Waterways dredged the canal deeper. They did it to make it appropriate for the propellers and engines of the boats but in doing so they took much of the clay-lining out. What you’ve got now is just continuous leaks all across the network.”

He added: “We could not afford any legal support and we were walked all over by British Waterways. We lost our gas main and our sewers were very badly damaged but British Waterways refused to do anything to restore it nor were we offered any compensation. We had to replace and restore our home ourselves.”

CRT took over from the now-disbanded British Waterways in 2012. Mr Lester continued: “CRT seems to think that they can just dig holes to enlarge the canal but the land is very porous and water soaks away very easily. Half a mile downstream from Llangattock is a prime example where they greatly enlarged the canal to form a marina yet one can see large amounts of water coming under the towpath into the field.”

Mrs Lester said: “After the canal bank collapsed here in 1975 British Waterways dug the canal deeper and steepened the bank. The bank was also concreted but that didn’t stop the leaks and we’ve had issues ever since. Parts of the bank are damp.”

She claimed: “When you have boats drawn by horse that is a very different thing to now with the engines and propellers and it just doesn’t work anymore. It really is a case of shoddy engineering and bad maintenance.”

The most recent landslide in 2014 caused the Lesters’ fence to move several metres down the bank and become almost horizontal. The couple say the danger is that the bank is so steep that it is beyond what is called the safe angle of repose [it rises 23 metres from the garden at an angle of almost 45 degrees] and with the movement it became hazardous because of large stones and debris continually falling down.

“I still feel apprehensive about that body of water,” Mrs Lester said. “It’s horrible. Every time you hear a crack of a branch you fear it’s another landslide.

“They’ve got sensors along the canal now monitoring any movement of the canal and towpath . It makes you think: what is going on that we don’t know about? We often hear trees come down at times of calm weather… because the ground is damp and soft from leaks. It’s terrifying.”

CRT has installed sensors across the waterway to monitor any movement in the soil on either side of the waterway and in 2018 installed huge mesh cage over the bank beside the Lesters’ home to try to prevent materials slipping down the bank.

Further issues arrived for the Lesters when they realised they were “trapped” in the property unable to sell. They said because they legally have to declare the issues beside their home and, they claim, CRT has refused to provide any formal assurances that the house is safe with a written certificate, no-one will buy the property. In 2016 the couple accepted an offer from a potential buyer of £825,000 but the sale fell through over safety fears.

“I’d built our retirement home in west Wales and we had to sell it because no-one will buy Llanfoist House from us,” Mr Lester said. “That’s when we decided to take CRT to court. We have a legal arm on our insurance policy which covered legal costs up to £100,000. We used that to take CRT to court but we got through the lot and basically ran out of time and money.

“We were hoping for some kind of compensation and a certificate to say the work that has been done by CRT makes our home safe. That would allow us to sell the house. But they won’t provide us with any assurances. We’re now in a position where we’ve had multiple offers withdrawn and we’re stuck here.”

A spokesman for CRT said: “The canal is an engineering marvel from the industrial age that attracts visitors from around the globe. Our charity works to keep it open and navigable for people to enjoy and for the benefit of wildlife.

“We’re constantly carrying out maintenance and repairs including monitoring for leaks or movement in the canal’s embankments. All canals have a demand for water to stay open and navigable.

“Every time a boat passes through a lock on the Mon and Brec, it takes water downstream to where it eventually will flow into the River Usk. Evaporation and transpiration can also see canals lose as much as an inch of water on hot summer days while an underlying ‘sweetening flow’ is always needed to support ecology and avoid canals turning stagnant.”

On Wednesday campaigners for the canal protested outside the Senedd calling for water levels to be “safeguarded” before the canal becomes unusable for boats and the public. Senedd members added their voices to a 14,000-strong chorus of calls for urgent action to avert a “catastrophic” drying out of the canal.

CRT relies on water abstraction to supply the canal, with up to 90% coming from the River Usk, and held exemptions until 2018 when regulations on licensing changed. Natural Resources Wales (NRW) oversees licensing, limiting the volume of water that can be abstracted on environmental grounds to protect special areas of conservation.

James Evans, the Tory Senedd member for Brecon and Radnorshire, similarly warned the canal is on the brink of closure due to NRW’s “unworkable” decisions. Mr Evans said water levels significantly fell within two weeks of the licence coming into force in March with CRT making clear it cannot afford to spend £1m a year buying water.

CRT says it can no longer afford the water abstraction licence to take water from the River Usk to replace the water the canal is losing while in the Senedd on Wednesday Labour’s Carolyn Thomas also told members: “The licence from NRW allows a lower level of extraction than has historically been allowed.

“Within 10 days of these regulations coming into force earlier this year there was a problem. [CRT] have calculated that if the licence water restrictions had been in force in the last 20 years the canal would only have been open for four summers. It also means money is not available for vital maintenance… to ensure the canal remains navigable and leaks get fixed.”

Huw Irranca-Davies, the deputy first minister and a former UK minister responsible for canals, told the Senedd responsibility is shared between Wales and Westminster on the issue of water abstraction. He said: “If there was an easy answer we’d have done it already.

“It isn’t an easy answer. What this will require is bringing people around the table together. It’s not one or the other: we need to find the solutions for the canal while also protecting the ecological status of the Usk.”

Mark Flood, member of the the Preserve and Protect the Mon and Brec (PPMB) campaign group who lives aboard his boat on the canal, said: “It’s encouraging that, after nearly five months, the Welsh Government has acknowledged the need to actively engage in finding a long-term solution to the canal’s water supply issues. I’m hopeful that the upcoming meeting between the government and key stakeholders will lead to meaningful progress.

“But having heard the deputy first minister’s response I’m not convinced that he recognises how urgent it is to find a solution that safeguards the canal so that my home and canal businesses will survive. Like many who live and work on the canal I won’t feel truly secure until a permanent solution is agreed and implemented without delay.”