Children hold key to canal chaos
Children are making their own lock keys and using them to drain stretches of water along the Stourbridge Canal, it has been claimed.
Children are making their own lock keys and using them to drain stretches of water along the Stourbridge Canal, it has been claimed.
They are believed to be behind a recent vandal attack on the canal near the Red House Glass Cone in Wordsley.
A quarter-mile section of the canal, between two locks, was drained early on Saturday morning.
It had to be refilled by British Waterways and canal users said was not the first time it had been targeted.
Officials at British Waterways said they believed keys, which are made available to boat owners, could have fallen into the wrong hands.
Spokeswoman Jessica Black said: "There are anti-vandal locks on the paddles which can be lifted to release the water and you need a special set of keys to undo them.
"But they are not child proof and we know that children have got hold of sets of keys and copied them so they can undo the locks.
"Unfortunately, they are not 100 per cent vandal proof because where there's a will, there's a way."
Officals hoped that with the school holidays drawing to a close there would be no more problems.
Patrols of the canal are carried out on a daily basis by British Waterways staff. An emergency team from British Waterways had to be dispatched to the canal on Saturday to repair the damage and re-water the section.
Narrowboat users in Stourbridge have already had a difficult 12 months after a 60ft section of Stourbridge Canal embankment collapsed during in heavy storms last September.
Dozen of boats were left high and dry after water drained from the two-mile stretch from Stourbridge locks to Stourton.
Trees were uprooted, and ground around the site, between Middle Bridge and Wordsley Junction, was left unstable.
More than 2,500 fish were rescued from shallow waters after the collapse.
Ten boats moored at Black Country Narrowboats, Prestwood Drive, were left stranded.
Families from Kidderminster and Walsall had to cancel holidays as they were unable to move their boats because of the lack of water.
Engineers constructed a temporary dam near Middle Bridge to help refill the section of the canal by the business in Prestwood Drive, allowing it to operate again.
The canal was then put back to its original shape and re-lined with clay 20 metres either side of the gap.
