Darwen Tower gate locked by 'joker' (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Darwen Tower gate locked by 'joker'
9:35am Thursday 9th February 2012 in Darwen
THE gate at the bottom of Darwen Tower has been unlocked, after a ‘Darwen joker’ bolted it shut.
The tower, which had its dome replaced by apprentice engineers at Darwen metal fabricators WEC after the original blew off in November 2010, was officially reopened by the mayor of Blackburn with Darwen, Coun Karimeh Foster, on Friday.
But upset Darreners who trekked up the moors to climb to the top of the tower this weekend found it was locked.
WEC spokesman Jean Dziki said the tower should be open and, as far as they knew, it had been left unlocked on Friday.
However, yesterday morning, a representative from WEC went up to the tower to find the door was indeed locked.
Mr Dziki said: “It looks like one of the Darwen jokers has been up and taken a bolt out of the bottom of the door and put it at the top to lock it closed.
“It is a horrible thing to do. I don’t understand why anybody would do that.
“We have opened it up again now.”
Comments(11)
Keith Myath
says...
10:23am Thu 9 Feb 12
Mikeee47
says...
12:46pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Your ferret stinks
says...
12:56pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Better call the commissioner in Gotham City right away before some fiend climbs to the top!
WEC Group
says...
1:50pm Thu 9 Feb 12
happycyclist wrote:We have left the temporary gate on as there is still some minor work to be done such as reconnecting the lightning conductor and the gate enables contractors to work safely. If there are any further incidents of this kind, we will remove the temporary gate.
Why can't the whole gate just be removed and stored, and used when needed, when any work is being done on the tower?
In the meantime, one of our apprentices' next project will be to manufacture a proper new gate for the tower.
(The temporary gate was installed using existing old fittings which means that there was a gate at some point in the past)
harrythehamster
says...
4:12pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Your ferret stinks wrote:Get the tower fiend repellent spray out Batman.
Since when has darwen tower ever had a gate on it? Better call the commissioner in Gotham City right away before some fiend climbs to the top!
happycyclist
says...
5:36pm Thu 9 Feb 12
WEC Group wrote:About 15 (?) years ago the tower had some work done on it. It was mainly work on the first floor if I remember correctly (I think it got a new surface and/or was rendered underneath), but heavy wooden doors were also fitted to both the entrance and the first floor. The doors weren't there for that long though.
happycyclist wrote:We have left the temporary gate on as there is still some minor work to be done such as reconnecting the lightning conductor and the gate enables contractors to work safely. If there are any further incidents of this kind, we will remove the temporary gate.
Why can't the whole gate just be removed and stored, and used when needed, when any work is being done on the tower?
In the meantime, one of our apprentices' next project will be to manufacture a proper new gate for the tower.
(The temporary gate was installed using existing old fittings which means that there was a gate at some point in the past)
Might be worth checking if the council still have the doors stored somewhere.
Your ferret stinks
says...
7:25pm Thu 9 Feb 12
happycyclist wrote:Yeah man, Jim Morrison would look ace on top of the tower!
WEC Group wrote:About 15 (?) years ago the tower had some work done on it. It was mainly work on the first floor if I remember correctly (I think it got a new surface and/or was rendered underneath), but heavy wooden doors were also fitted to both the entrance and the first floor. The doors weren't there for that long though.
happycyclist wrote:We have left the temporary gate on as there is still some minor work to be done such as reconnecting the lightning conductor and the gate enables contractors to work safely. If there are any further incidents of this kind, we will remove the temporary gate.
Why can't the whole gate just be removed and stored, and used when needed, when any work is being done on the tower?
In the meantime, one of our apprentices' next project will be to manufacture a proper new gate for the tower.
(The temporary gate was installed using existing old fittings which means that there was a gate at some point in the past)
Might be worth checking if the council still have the doors stored somewhere.
N4you!
says...
7:42pm Thu 9 Feb 12
There's something strange in the neighbourhood, who you gona call, the GHOSTBUSTERS
CapitaBackHander
says...
1:26am Fri 10 Feb 12
What did anyone expect to see? It was freezing fog up on the moors. Couldn't see more than twenty feet at times.
I hope these apprentices are walking up or driving the 4x4 up with better skill than one fitting day when one slid to left hand side and changed the path.
Yimkin
says...
10:39am Fri 10 Feb 12
happycyclist says...
9:42am Thu 9 Feb 12