Big clean-up

WITH the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) becoming very difficult to navigate through so much rubbish tipped into the waterways, there had to be a big clean-up.

This took place over last week-end, when more than 100 volunteers from the Waterway Recovery Group (WRG), Inland Waterways Association, Birmingham Canal Navigations Society, Dudley Canal Trust and Canal & River Trust joined forces to carry out a massive canal clean-up of the BCN.

40 tons

Using grappling hooks and other tools volunteers removed over 40 tons from the canal around Ashted Flight, Typhoo Wharf and Camp Hill Locks—filling four skips in the process. Work boats, provided by CaRT, were also on hand to take away rubbish. It is hoped this annual effort on the BCN will help keep the less used parts of the BCN and Black Country Network from getting choked up with rubbish and becoming impassable for boats. (Photograph by Chris Morgan.)

The usual assortment of shopping trolleys, bicycles and tyres were pulled out of the canal, along with some more unusual items including three goal posts, a safe and a Lancashire boiler shovel!

Working together

WRG Leader Chris Morgan enthused:

"I am very proud of all the volunteers who got involved and travelled from across the country to help clean up the canals of Birmingham this weekend. Thanks to their enthusiasm and efforts we cleared a massive amount of rubbish from the canal. It was great to see WRG and other volunteers of all ages working together to clean-up the BCN."