Yobs drain Wolverhampton Flight

YOBS have managed to obtain anti-vandal keys and drain the entire Wolverhampton Flight of 21 locks.

Boaters arriving at both the top and bottom of the flight found the pounds between the locks drained as yobs had obviously obtained a 'Watermate' key and had been able to open the paddles on all the locks, Alan Tilbury tells us.

Widely available

These keys are now widely available from chandleries, and were even at one time being offered on Ebay at £5 each.

Workers from Canal & River Trust spend all day Wednesday letting water down into the drained pounds, and it was yesterday before boaters were able to use the locks.

Our Mick Fitzgibbons reports:

"We travelled up the flight early one morning a few weeks ago and several of the pounds were very low. I had to walk up the flight to flush water down, just to ensure that we could get through. I think that as well as the vandalism there is a problem with several of the pounds leaking and some pounds need dredging.

"How many 'one off' events are needed before the Trust will take up the issue. This is certainly not the first time that lock pounds have been drained down. Though in all fairness, I don't ever remember all the pounds being drained down at the same time. Maybe the vandals have now become more practised and accomplished and have keys and windlasses. We actually saw two police officers on cycles going down the towpath while we were going up the flight."

The Trust is hoping that this was a 'one-off' incident, but, with such vandals having a key to operate the anti-vandal locks, boaters believe it will happen again.