More anti-drunk barriers in Manchester

Published: Monday, 19 March 2018

IN RESPONSE to the call for more fencing after Charlie Pope drowned in the Rochdale Nine in Manchester, a temporary barrier has been erected to get people to use a footbridge instead of a lock to cross the waterway.

Rochdale BarrierThe teenager had been drinking until the early hours and stumbled into the canal and drowned, and so a barrier has been erected by Tib Lock (89) in an attempt to prevent people using the lock gates to cross the canal and falling in when drunk, but to use a nearby footbridge instead.

Thousands use lock gates

Great response was made when people were seen using the balance beams to cross the waterway instead of the footbridge, but they do not seem to realise that literally thousands of people use the balance beams to cross from one side of a waterway to the other, quite safely, using the handrails, all of us boaters have seen many.

Boaters themselves have no alternative but to use the balance beams when say a paddle has been left up on the off-side, we have all done it, time and time again, and it is perfectly safe.

resposibility1Used the lock safely for years

But after yet another knee-jerk reaction a barrier has been installed to attempt to get people to use the nearby footbridge instead of the balance beams, which of course is being ignored by those that have used the lock safely for years, the authorities not understanding that that is what people do.

But of course another drowning and in goes the barrier and of course notices stating to use the footbridge instead of the lock balance beams, which of course are ignored.

100 people a day use lock

The local council admit that 'around 100 people a day have been using the precarious route to cross the Rochdale Canal', but as we all know, there is nothing precarious about it at all, unless of course you are drunk.

It is realised what a shock it is when a teenager drowns and that there is an urge to prevent others, but really, if people get drunk and attempt to cross a waterway and drown, there is only one person responsible.