Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Canal in Tipton locked off for over a week leaving boater stuck.
Express & Star
Follow
28/01/2025
A boater is being left out in the cold as to why the Canal & River Trust have locked down the canal in Tipton. It's been over a week and all they will say is its a Police incident, but the Police have said to him they know nothing about it.
Category
🗞
News
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
So we're here on the Birmingham New Line Canal and we're here with boater Chris.
00:04
Hello sir. Hello. Chris, that's your boat back there, just fill us in, you've got a
00:09
bit of a problem with it, you're quite keen to get to the boatyard half a mile
00:12
down the road, what is that? I've got a hole in my boat, I've already booked the
00:20
dry dock, I've been waiting here for a week now, I'm paying the dry dock 85
00:27
pounds per day. So why are you not continuing through these locks down the
00:34
way? Because of these things. Right and here's the problem, so the locks are
00:40
currently out of order, padlocked, and how long have they been that way for Chris?
00:44
A week you say? Yeah, I believe from six o'clock last Tuesday. Yeah, so you've
00:53
obviously, you're getting, so you weren't informed that they were going to be
00:55
closed were you? So you get in touch with British Waterways. Canal and River Trust.
01:00
Canal and River Trust, sorry apologies, and what do they say then? It's a police
01:06
incident and it's up to the police to give the permission, however the police
01:13
don't know anything about it. You've contacted the police haven't you, they said
01:16
well it's not on our logs. It's not on their logs and they haven't got the
01:21
remit. So you contacted the fire? The fire brigade, they have got nothing on
01:26
their logs and they cannot take the locks off. I've contacted my landlord
01:34
Canal and River Trust and said I am desperate to get move this boat, the boat
01:38
is sinking, I haven't had any sleep. Well that's it, because you're having to keep
01:42
an eye on, yeah, resolve that. Fortunately my partner passed away, so I'm going
01:48
through a grieving problem. Yeah. I've run out of water on the boat, domestic
01:55
water. I mentioned that to Canal and River Trust and alright, God loved them. After a week
02:04
they've just given me six bottles of water. Yeah. However I'm getting very
02:11
tired. I've even said to Canal and River Trust, I'll take these padlocks off, I'll
02:17
replace them. Get your boat through. I will replace the locks and they said if
02:23
you do that, we're going to do you for criminal damage. You're going to be
02:28
fined about two thousand quid and because I have then done criminal
02:33
damage to Canal and River Trust property, they will not issue me a license to stay on
02:39
the water. And this has been your life for 17 years isn't it, on the canal? Yes.
02:43
Are you seeing things getting worse for life on the canal as a
02:49
boater? Are these issues kind of becoming more and more? More and more. It's ironic.
02:55
You go up north, it's worse again. Yeah. You'll look at bridges, you'll see
03:03
bridges where there's cracks. That one, there's one down there. Yeah. And it's
03:10
absolute, they're going to fall in. Yeah. There's lack of maintenance. Yeah. Lack of
03:16
care. Well you were saying there's, they're meant to provide like facilities
03:20
aren't they? Like cleaning, like shower facilities and stuff and there's some at
03:23
the Black Country Museum for boaters and they're not working. How long is it
03:28
they've not been working for Chris? Over two years. So you're left kind of in
03:33
limbo aren't you? They can't tell you, they're not telling you why it's closed.
03:37
They're just saying it's a police incident and that's as much as we can
03:42
say. Is that what they're saying? That's correct. I've even rang up the
03:45
Environmental Agency. They're saying they have got nothing but they are working,
03:50
they are going to look at all their files and the thing that really
03:57
concerns me, is it a health and safety issue? Well yeah because we're looking at
04:02
the water and you know without being officially informed, but your guess is
04:06
this is a pollutant issue yeah? Yeah but unfortunately you would expect to see
04:12
dead fish. Okay yeah. And there's no dead fish. Yeah. Yeah. Because the water's
04:18
definitely a funny colour isn't it? It's definitely a funny green. Yeah.
04:22
But like you say, you know, your boat's sitting in the middle of it so if it is
04:26
an environmental issue, a health issue in that respect, you'd quite like to know
04:32
yourself. You know what I mean? Yeah but apparently they won't tell me. They can't
04:37
go into details. Yeah. So you're just left in limbo at the minute then mate.
04:41
You don't know if this is going to be opening one day, two days, a week, a month.
04:45
You just don't know. Yep. And I'm running out of diesel. Yeah. I'm running out of
04:51
patience. Yeah yeah. And I'm not having any sleep. Yeah. So they have said oh well
04:58
why don't you go a different route along the way round but like we'll show
05:01
some of the bits of the canal there. You know you've already got an issue with
05:04
the bottom of your boat. You're booked in half a mile down the way. You know
05:09
you don't want to be banging on to the bottom of another trolley or something
05:13
else in the water. And that will then make the hole bigger and then my bilge pump won't be able to
05:17
contain that amount of water. Yeah. And my boat will sink indefinitely. Yeah yeah.
05:22
And there's no way. You know as you could see before with all the rubbish
05:30
there. Yeah. Whatever else is going to be on the old line. A couple of years back I
05:36
hit a sofa on the old line. No way. Took us four, CRT and myself, four hours to get
05:46
the sofa off. And if there's a sofa down there which I'm not trusting that line
05:50
at all. Yeah. Even my boat is gone. My home is gone. Yeah. And where, so where is it
05:57
locked from then? So we're here by the old bush pub in Tipton, Factory Road and
06:01
then if you go up the canal towards Wolverhampton. What kind of
06:06
distance of stretch is unusable then sort of thing? Well there's no locks. So
06:15
you could mostly hit Wolverhampton. Yeah. And is it locked off then at Wolves? It's
06:20
locked off on the Wolves 21 flight. Yeah. Yeah. But that is down to they were
06:25
repaired in a locked gate. Yeah. So the whole flight is shut. Yeah. Which is fair
06:29
comment. Yeah. So does this, if you had a friend that come along and I said I'm
06:35
thinking of getting a boat and doing the whole boat in life. I guess you'd, you'd
06:39
just, your experience at the minute is you'd be a bit tempted to say
06:43
well maybe just think twice about that. Yeah. This needs basically unfortunately
06:50
the canal needs to be taken away from Canal and River Trust and given back to
06:57
the state. Yeah. Well we wish you all the best in with your boat and getting on
07:02
moving chap. All the best to you Chris. We're just at the back of the old bush
07:06
pub here and we can see kind of the water's green. So, so if that's the issue
07:10
they've blocked the locks that you need to get through. But you were saying the
07:13
canal is actually, so to our left that's where you want to go. The Birmingham
07:18
main line? Birmingham main line. Now that canal we can see stretching off, what's
07:24
that one? That's the old line, Birmingham old line. And that's still open then? Yeah.
07:30
So you can't get your head around if it's all, if it's about containing water
07:34
then you know. Well this water then will flow, it will go all the way to Smethwick,
07:41
come out at Smethwick locks and return to the main line, the new line. Yeah. So what
07:48
is the point of securing the water when it, they're not doing anything? Yeah. You
07:55
just made a very good point, if it is, because obviously they're not
07:58
informing you what's going on, if it is because the water's polluted, which we
08:02
can see it's definitely a funny green, what was the point you were making about
08:05
dog walkers and so on? Dog walkers use the towpath a hell of a lot and some
08:10
dogs love water, so you know a dog walker may throw a stick into the canal
08:16
for the dog to fetch. Yeah. However if there is a contaminant it's putting the
08:23
dog's safety at risk and it's also putting the dog walker, if there is any
08:30
contamination and it touched, it could make them ill.
Recommended
0:50
|
Up next
Police descend upon boat on Wheelton Canal to check for 'severed hand'.
Lancashire Post
08/03/2024
0:40
Canal boat smashes through lock
Newsflare
09/01/2017
0:53
Timelapse as Tuel lane Lock in Yorkshire is dewatered ahead of deep clean
Yorkshire Post
08/03/2023
2:38
Royal Navy ship sent to Dover to patrol the English Channel
KentOnline / KMTV
20/11/2021
0:37
Canal Boat Diaries
Lancashire Post
08/03/2022
0:40
Police Pursuit of Jet Skis Captured From Thames Boat
StoryfulNews
04/08/2018
1:02
Man finds boat vandalised in Wigan
Wigan Today
20/05/2025
0:50
Spring clean time at the UK's deepest single lock, the Tuel Lane Lock at Sowerby Bridge
Yorkshire Post
08/03/2023
1:53
Tasmania Police pursue man on Tamar River | The Examiner | November 21, 2023
The Examiner
21/11/2023
1:51
UK should be 'supervising' the French over migrant boats, Sir John Redwood claims
GB News
11/04/2025
3:59
The Driver Went Overboard—Then the Boat Took Off Alone
ReelzChannel
05/06/2025
1:35
Frenzy of Sharks Seen in St Francis Bay, South Africa
StoryfulViral
07/02/2018
2:38
Metropolitan Police issue statement on Brixton clashes
ODN
25/06/2020
1:21
Bridgewater Canal collapses from heavy rain
ODN
02/01/2025
0:45
Spate of burglaries in Bamber Bridge sparks CCTV appeal
Lancashire Post
17/09/2024
2:20
Lancashire Post news update: ‘Time bomb’ Preston restaurant set to be flattened
Lancashire Post
21/06/2022
3:37
Ryedale Burglaries Police Pursuit
Hartlepool Mail
08/03/2023
0:47
Police cordon off Portsmouth road after "suspicious" package was found
The News, Portsmouth
19/03/2024
0:55
Newcastle headlines 18 September: Newcastle Dragon Boat race returns to the Tyne this month
National World - LocalTV
18/09/2023
12:00
Out on the boat with Port of Sunderland water patrol
National World - Broadcast Video
17/05/2024
0:14
Van stopped by police and boxed in Portsmouth
The News, Portsmouth
yesterday
0:32
Drone footage of flooding in Lincolnshire
Yorkshire Post
07/01/2024
0:55
London headlines: Met Police commander ‘deeply sorry’ after damming report
National World - LocalTV
09/02/2024
1:04
Celebrations at Opportunity Pre-School, Shrewsbury after being graded a strong 'Good' by Ofsted.
Shropshire Star
yesterday
1:28
Shropshire Star Morning Update 30 June, 2025
Shropshire Star
yesterday