Vandals open locks to drain Wolverhampton canal
This was the scene after an entire two mile stretch of a canal in the Black Country was drained after vandals opened all of its 21 locks stopping its natural flow of water.
Boaters in and around Wolverhampton were unable to travel on a stretch of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal yesterday.
The canal, which runs from Aldersley to the city centre, was closed off on Monday evening at about 9pm following the incident which saw vandals tamper with the paddles on the lock gates.
The image shows the muddy looking canal between Aldersley and Wolverhampton left very bare with hardly any water.
The picture was sent to the Express & Star by Twitter user Tom Warrender yesterday morning.
The Canal and River Trust, a new charity entrusted with the care of 2,000 miles of waterways in England and Wales, was sent out to the canal throughout yesterday to try to restore the canal.
The Trust said it would have hoped to restore the canal back to normality at around 5pm.
Sarah Rudy, spokeswoman for The Canal and River Trust, said: "Overnight vandals opened all the lock gate paddles on the 21 locks on the Wolverhampton Lock flight. This caused this entire stretch of canal to empty.
"Our team have been working throughout the day trying to get the water levels back up to normal and we hope to have the canal back open."
The Trust say they have not dealt with police on the issue as they hope the incident will be 'one-off'.
