J&B's canal bridge of sighs
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• A poorly maintained canal bridge has forced the West Midlands Deputy Licensing Authority Ronald Jackson to refuse an operating licence for John Bailey and Phillip Chaplin, who trade as J & B Services of Nuneaton.
The two men had sought a licence for three vehicles and three trailers, but British Waterways and three neighbouring residents objected because they were worried about access to the firm's operating centre along an unmade track and over a canal bridge. The bridge is not capable of taking traffic with a total gross weight of more than five tonnes or axle weights exceeding 2.5 tonnes.
J & B Services argued that its artics would only cross the bridge unladen and that their total unladen weight would not be imposed on the bridge at any one time because their wheelbases exceeded the bridge's total length.
Jackson visited the site and decided that the margin of safety was too small and that the bridge did not appear to be in a good condition.
He felt that the bounce from empty vehicles would cause further damage and that a bridge collapse might cause a problem for craft below and prevent emergency services reaching residents on the other side of the canal.