Harley bike is top find in canal blitz

A rusty Harley Davidson was among 45 tons of junk pulled from canals during a clean-up in the Black Country, it was revealed today.

The haul, which included two other motorbikes as well as countless shopping trolleys and dozens of pedal bikes, filled several skips and has now been weighed in and sold as scrap.

It could mean that thousands of pounds raised from the scrap will go to Birmingham Canal Navigation Society to spend on improving the borough's waterways.

The muddy haul, collected last weekend, is heavier than all of the rubbish Sandwell Council's Big Spring Clean campaign has collected in its three-year history.

The Harley, which is believed to have been languishing in the water for around six months, was discovered on the Walsall canal at Wednesbury.

In that same small stretch there were also 15 shopping trolleys and a number of wheelchairs.

Elsewhere there was a child's purple mountain bike, scooters, a ladder and some industrial waste.

Sandwell Council staff were joined by volunteers from British Waterways, the Inland Waterways Association, the Waterways Recovery Group and the Birmingham Canal Navigation Society.

The 140 volunteers met at the Ocker Hill residential moorings in Tipton, and split up into smaller groups working on the canal network all across the borough.

Sandwell Council's Big Spring Clean project officer Matt Hart said: "The turnout was fantastic, we had volunteers from organisations all over the country.

"The things we found were just incredible, I can't believe we actually pulled out three motorbikes and a huge amount of shopping trolleys. There were also a lot of tyres, and general rubbish from the towpaths.

"We split up into seven boats, some of which had tugs on the back so it was like the equivalent of two boats, and we all went off in different directions and filled them up.

"We covered around 70 miles of canal, up towards Perry Barr and Dudley, all over the borough."

The Big Spring Clean campaign will run for a further eight weeks until mid June. To get involved telephone 0121 569 3734.

By Lucy Townsend