The land around four canals in the Dudley borough could soon be safeguarded for future generations.

Council chiefs have been canvassing residents to find out their opinions over plans to extend the conservation areas.

They will spend the next few weeks drawing up their final proposals. It is hoped the changes, affecting areas near the Stourbridge branch canal in Canal Street and in Amblecote as well as Stourbridge Sixteen Locks and Delph Locks, Brierley Hill, will help protect them from unwanted development.

Current buildings will also be protected in the scheme alongside improving access to the canal network.

A month-long consultation finished on Friday.

A spokesman for Dudley Council said: “We have had a lot of interest and support for this but we won’t know the details of the responses until later this month.”

Under the plans being considered, the Canal Street conservation area would be extended to include land where the locally listed Stourbridge Canal Company offices, which date back to 1849, are housed.

The site also includes the Titan Works, the grade two listed Foster and Rastrick Foundry, and the grade two listed Bonded Warehouse, which opened with the canal in 1779. The Amblecote conservation area of the Stourbridge branch canal, which also opened in 1779, would see only minor changes to its boundaries.

The Sixteen Locks Conservation Area, including the Red House Glass Cone, was first extended in 1983 but now council bosses want to extend it again to include the River Stour, Wordsley Flint Glassworks and the former Stuart Crystal factory. Delph Locks conservation area would also see changes to its boundaries.

A report will go before Dudley council’s development control committee on March 20 which could recommend that the revised boundary proposals are given the go-ahead.

By Helen Cartwright