{"id":722551,"date":"2026-08-01T09:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722551\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T09:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:58:11","slug":"west-midlands-boaters-race-against-clock-as-drained-canals-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722551\/","title":{"rendered":"West Midlands boaters race against clock as drained canals close"},"content":{"rendered":"

It comes after drought was declared across seven areas of England this week<\/a>, following four heatwaves and one of the driest spells this century.<\/p>\n

The BBC also reported canal users across the Midlands feared the situation was only going to get worse, with the CRT and the government both urged to do more.<\/p>\n

Notable restrictions and closures currently affecting waterways include:<\/p>\n

Atherstone Lock Flight, Warwickshire<\/p>\n

Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, from Lock 22 at Lapworth to Stratford-upon-Avon<\/p>\n

Grand Union Canal at Hatton Lock Flight, Warwick, between locks 46 and 37<\/p>\n

Caldon Canal between Etruria and Cheddleton, Staffordshire<\/p>\n

Trent and Mersey Canal at several points, including between Meaford Top Lock and Yard Lock, Stone<\/p>\n

Grand Union Canal between Camp Hill Top Lock, Birmingham, and Knowle Top Lock<\/p>\n

Wolverhampton Lock Flight<\/p>\n

Rushall Lock Flight, Walsall<\/p>\n

Ryders Green Lock Flight, West Bromwich<\/p>\n

Not all closures are due to weather conditions, with some repair work making the situation even more difficult. <\/p>\n

Seward is also on the steering group of Fund Britain’s Waterways, which wants a parliamentary debate on the future of the network.<\/p>\n

He was part of a 15-boat campaign cruise heading for Preston and Lancaster this year, which he said had been “thwarted completely by lock closures, failed locks, droughts and failed assets”.<\/p>\n

Describing his passion for boating as “all consuming”, he has been on the water since he was 10 and lived through the droughts of 1975 and 1976.<\/p>\n

“The canal infrastructure is in a far worse state than it was in the 70s and that’s the problem,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“The locks leak like a sieve more or less or all over the place.<\/p>\n

“Over the last 10 days I’ve seriously thought about the possibility of selling my boat, which I’ve had for 25 years, because I just fear for the long-term sustainability of the canal system.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It comes after drought was declared across seven areas of England this week, following four heatwaves and one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-722551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}