What a way to spend your Bank Holiday afternoon – sat waiting to exit Rodley Nature Reserve!
The problems with the canal bridge continued when the busiest day of the year at the Reserve resulted in two-hour wait to exit, due to the malfunction of the canal swing bridge.
Apparently the canal users were experienced boaters who had encountered this bridge before and knew how to operate but unfortunately, on this occasion, encountered problems.
The situation was so bad that arrangements were being made with the neighbouring farmer to exit the Reserve across his land. Fortunately the bridge eventually worked, much to the relief of the waiting visitors.
The Reserve has now made representations to Rodley Homes wanting to know what is going to be done to prevent this happening again.
Reserve spokesman Jerry Knapp said: “Thank goodness it didn’t happen on Sunday when we had a big event on and thank goodness no-one had a heart attack. These comments are not being melodramatic but realistic.”
Whilst it is bad enough now, the Reserve is concerned that the problems associated with the bridge will only be exacerbated when the housing development is completed and hope that the problems will now be fully appreciated and a solution found.
- David Nesham, Rodley Nature Reserve
- Follow WLD’s ongoing coverage of Airedale Mills here.
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Leeds Council and the developers DO NOT CARE. They knew the issues and ignored them !
I was stuck in the very same jam, and as a visitor from London, I was less than impressed with the “not my problem” attitude of BOTH the bridge operators and more concerning, the fire brigade, who helpfully advised ‘walk across’ it’s not an emergency!! It was a hot day and there were babies in cars in the queue, this didn’t seem to bother the lady on the end of the phone from the brigade, in fact she was massively dismissive if the whole situation, GOD help anyone in Rodley if there is a fire that needs dealing with……..
What did you want the fire brigade to do? Sounds like they did the right thing as it was neither a fire or an emergency. It’s looks like people were inconvenienced but no one was in danger.