River Path

Our local council have been busy along the river path joining Swanwick to Warsash. Where the culverts connect the lagoons connecting Bunny Meadows and the river, they have constructed fences along the path to prevent anyone or dogs falling in.

There are 5 or 6 sets of these along the 3 mile stretch of the river path, and lets say that each set cost £5,000 or £6,000 to erect, that's a lot of money to spend to protect people from being stupid, the culverts were clearly marked and already protected by grates so no one could get swept through. At the time when taxation in UK is at an absolute height you have to question this sort or expenditure 

And more so when  maintenance of the actual fabric of the pathway is so  neglected, here a recent shoring up of the path was done so badly that it's almost breached again and being washed away by the high tides. There are many  sections of the path like this in dire need to properer repair and reinforcement.

Interesting then that the council choose to spend what limited funds they claim to have on gates such as this. There is another set up river by the old stone pier. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but maybe installing a couple of gates and preventing people using the path might be cheaper than making the repairs and of course the path will be closed for our own safety.

 It's said that something should never be attributed to malice what can be explained by incompetence, but I think the jury is out on this one. Comments from the authorities are most welcome.