Two canal festivals that were expected to attract thousands of people have been cancelled because of essential repairs to the reservoir at Chasewater.

The annual Birmingham Canal Navigations Society (BCNS) marathon cruise in May has been cancelled, as has the return of Pelsall Canal Festival in June for the first time since 1997.

The seven-day BCNS Explorer Cruise, which allows boaters to navigate hidden routes, will go ahead on June 5.

However, it will be restricted to 20 boats rather than the usual 30.

The new route is yet to be confirmed.

Pelsall Canal Festival will now be held on June 11 and 12 next year.

Billions of gallons of water is being drained out of the reservoir, on the Brownhills-Burntwood boundary, to allow flooding prevention work costing £2.5million to take place.

BCNS spokeswoman Jenny Maxwell said: “While summer cruising will not be affected at normal levels, so people will still be able to come on holidays and use the canals, it would be difficult to hold the major events at the same time and have lots of boats on the canals while this work is being done.

“The whole of the canal system is going to be affected to some degree.”