IT WAS many years ago that our then contributor, Richard Swann, pointed out the unsafe lock ladders on some of the locks on the Shropshire Union Canal.
As his photograph shows there is only just space for the toe of a shoe on the rungs of the ladder of a lock on that waterway, making it rather dangerous for single handed boaters to use what are often very slippery ladders.
But John Dale tells us that walking along the Audlem Flight he noticed that the space behind the ladders is being cut deeper, with an engineer telling him they are having to be cut to 150mm.
His question is that if every one of the 15 locks is to have its ladder depth increased, it will take a long, long time. But at least the ladders will be safer.