Three out of four pumps failed

Published: Thursday, 18 April 2019

ONLY three of the four pumps supplying the Wolverhampton Level is working.

This means that the 47 miles waterway linking Wolverhampton with Birmingham is short of water as all but one of the pumps at Bradley has now failed, Keith Gudgin tells us.

WolverhamptonLevelNothing was done

It is understood that though the failures took place over a period of time, it being run on just two pumps, obviously nothing was done to repair the two failures, the third failure now leading to restrictions to deep draughted boats, and overnight closure.

Attempts are now being made to solve the problem, with either a replacement pump being found or persuading Staffordshire County Council as owners of Chasewater Reservoir and Natural England to secure a feed into the canal.

Slowly falling

We are told however that the water level in the canal is slowly falling, so unless a solution is quickly found the navigation will most likely have to be closed.