ON THE matter of the rotten beams, it seems to me that it's not something that would happen overnight undetected, writes, Keith Gudgin.
These beams are made of seasoned, and I would imagine, treated, oak. They are very large and heavy and therefore take decades to rot.
Cause serious injury
Being very heavy means that one of these beams breaking and falling onto somebody could cause a very serious injury or worse.
If it should fall into the lock onto a boat it could cause serious damage and could even sink a boat, especially a small one. If it fell onto someone who was on a boat then the result could be very serious indeed.
Inspected urgently
If they are so bad that they are breaking at the rate of three a week then they all need to be inspected as a mater of extreme urgency and the bad ones flagged up for replacement well before they fail and hurt somebody.