Where's the sense?

IT WAS a year ago that we passed through Barton Turns Lock on the Trent & Mersey Canal and noticed the crumbling bank below the lock.

Now, it is somewhat worse and Canal & River Trust has done something about it. Not alas repaired the problem—but taken what can only be described as a crazy decision—the Trust has bypassed it.

Fences

Not just by the original orange fencing, but they have actually erected wooden fences both sides of the unstable bank, so that people now have to climb on to a road serving a lorry depot, then along the road with no footpath, then back down the other side.

But to make it easier for its few visitors to that part of the waterway they have even included steps up to the road but only on one side. The above picture was taken in September 2014, the one below taken this morning (Monday 28th September, 2015).

Dangerous road

Just how crazy is that? Instead of simply attending to the problem, CaRT has gone to the trouble and expense of erecting fencing, and building steps on to what is a dangerous road, as lorries turn off the road at right angles, off the A38 around a blind corner onto where both boaters, visitors and dogs have to walk.

After all, the bank will eventually collapse and completely block the access to the lock, so will have to be repaired; so why on earth hasn't it been done?

Indeed, where is the sense?