Structures becoming beyond use all at the same time

Thank you for your continuing coverage, and in particular of the woeful condition of the canal system, writes Roger Baker.

Earlier this season we spent a couple of months on Caldon, Macclesfield and the Four Counties, so we experienced quite a lot of such problems. Whilst the workarounds that have been used are in themselves imaginative, it does not solve the problem of a great number of structures becoming beyond use all at the same time.

Scarce and expensive

I may be wrong in this, but I suspect that the quality of the timber used in constructing the gates in more recent times, has been declining since seasoned English Oak is now both a scarce and expensive commodity.

Sadly nowadays, nothing is made as well as it once was, and also the use of recycled materials in manufacture is showing its hand as programmed obsolescence all around us.

We are already being sold new boats made from recycled mixed metals as opposed to pure grade plate.