"Fence off all the Manchester canals!"

THE cry from councillors of Manchester City Council is "Fence off all the Manchester canals to save lives!"

This of course is the reaction to the latest attempt by an unknown person to push a cyclist into the Rochdale Canal in the city, with councillors seriously discussing the suggestion in an attempt to lessen the deaths in the waterways of the city of which there have been 76 in the past ten years, 17 of these believed to have been pushed into the water.

Stumbling in

Many of the others are of course the result of drunks stumbling in, but it is believed that fencing the whole waterway system in the city would drastically reduce the number of the many drowning which is obviously proving an embarrassment to the council, with many comments both on social media and letters to the newspapers of Manchester calling it the 'drowning city' and the like.

The picture shows the concrete temporary 'fence' recently erected at one side of a lock on the 'Rochdale Nine' and wire fencing at the other side.

The police had confirmed that some people found drowned in Manchester's canals were deliberately pushed, as it has emerged the number of bodies pulled from the waterways has risen, but they do not admit to a 'serial killer' on the loose.

As to the operation by boaters of the locks in the city if fenced in, this seems of no concern.