Express & Star

How could they do it? Fury at Black Country canal attack

Despicable – that is how boaters and walkers summed up the vandals who drained 20,000 gallons of water from a two-mile stretch of canal in the Black Country, causing chaos that lasted most of a day.

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Narrowboats were forced to queue for hours after the vandal attack which left the entire stretch of the canal, known as the Wolverhampton Lock Flight, which runs from Aldersley to the Broad Street Basin, drained of almost all of its water.

Aldersley resident Michael Ward, who said the vandalism was 'appalling behaviour, but I can't say that I'm surprised'

Yobs struck on Monday night and the stretch was closed for most of Tuesday. It took around 16 hours for engineers to pump water back into the canal before it could reopen to boats again.

A duck was found tangled up in a beer can holder

Michael Ward, aged 51, from Aldersley in Wolverhampton, who regularly walks along the canal, branded it 'appalling behaviour'.

"I can't say I'm too surprised," he said. "I love walking down here and it must have been awful for the boaters to have been stuck there for that length of time. The boaters are lovely to speak to."

Around a dozen boats were forced to wait on Tuesday as workers from the Canal and River Trust pumped water back in to the stretch from other parts of the canal. Normal service resumed at around 4.30pm the same day.

The stretch of the canal that was drained joins both Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and the Birmingham Main Line Canal. It is used by around 20 boats each day.

It is believed the vandals used a specially made anti-vandal key to open up the padlock gates which led to around 20,000 gallons of water draining off to adjacent land and other stretches of canal.

The Canal and River Trust said the incident would not have affected wildlife at the time as fish would have 'gone with the flow' of the water and ducks would have flown away. No fish had to be rescued and none died as a result. Although one duck was photographed in the drained canal with a plastic beer can holder stuck around its neck.

David Bailey, customer operations manager at the Canal and River Trust, today said the actions of the vandals involved were terrible.

"It was a shocking incident and caused a bit of impact with our customers, with a few stuck on the flight not being able to move," he said.

"But we responded as quickly as we could and thankfully they showed a lot of patience. We have spent a lot of time trying to get it all sorted and had taken most of the day. It is despicable behaviour really, totally unacceptable.

"We've had problems before but not to this extent.

"Everything is ok now as water has been sent down by the trust. The flight is back open and everything is working ok."

He confirmed there were no plans to review security after the vandalism.

"The keys are fairly restricted, you can't buy them anywhere," he added. "We are quite confident that this is very rare and doesn't happen often. The anti-vandal locks we have in place are suitable and we are happy with everything we've got."

Boaters however spoke of their shock after what had happened.

Jayne Provost, aged 63, who was passing through the region from her home town of Macclesfield on her boat, said: "I saw an update somewhere telling us what had happened.

"I think its awful. Whoever has done this should be ashamed of themselves."

Nick Ward, 61, from Croydon, London, said: "I spoke to one of the boaters who were stranded and they did not look pleased. This looks a beautiful area, I can't imagine why anyone would want to do this. It seems a lot of effort for little gain."

Meanwhile, Angie Wallace, 58, who regularly walks on the canal stretch with her dog Sam, added: "This is an horrific piece of vandalism.

"I don't know why anyone would want to do that and what they are achieving by it.

"This is one of Wolverhampton's nicest venues.

"It is so beautiful to look at and talk to people travelling."

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