Winners of Birmingham photo competition announced

Budding photographers were encouraged to snap a wide variety of waterway images such as colourful boats, waterway wildlife, historic canal architecture or pictures of people enjoying spending time on their local canal.

The winners are:

1st place: Damien Walmsley with his picture titled ‘Running under Snow Hill station'.

2nd place: Michael Landelle with his picture titled ‘Lazy Sunday afternoon'.

3rd place: Damien Walmsley with his picture titled ‘Sunrise over Brindleyplace'

As part of the prize the winners were invited to a special VIP celebration event at the Council House in Birmingham where they were presented with their prize by The Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands, Mr John Crabtree OBE and Allan Leighton, chairman at Canal & River Trust.

Adnan Saif, director of West Midlands at the Canal & River Trust, said: "It's wonderful that so many people took part in this photo competition. The pictures really showed how lovely the canals in Birmingham and the Black Country are and how lucky we are to have this wonderful network of canals right on our doorstep.

"I hope these pictures will encourage more people to come and discover their local canal as research shows being by water makes us happier and healthier."

Michael Smith-Keary, from the Birmingham Canal Navigations Society, said: "It was great seeing so many wonderful pictures of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. There was a real mixture of photos from beautiful rural canal scenes, wildlife, boats and pictures that highlighted our urban waterways.

"All of the photos highlighted just how popular our canals are with local people and that nowadays they are being used for boating and so much more. Now they are very much about creating green spaces that are used for leisure and living - playing a vital role in our society for another 250 years."