The New (Safer?) Bridge

I'm expecting a bit of grief from a good friend and former colleague over this blip.  For 20 odd years I've walked along the Wyrley Bank Branch  disused canal at the back of our estate.  It was taken over by the local council a few years ago and paths created and information boards provided.  At one point a sleeper bridge was built over the canal, to join up paths in the area.  I've photographed it over the years, as the sleepers provided a beautiful foreground structure to images.

While I knew this was going to happen, having been discussed before I left work last year, I was somewhat dismayed to see this 'construction' to make the bridge safer.  I'll put my cards on the table.  I never thought it needed to have rails to prevent people falling in.  For a start to get to it you have to walk half a mile along the towpath to reach this bridge - there are no signs of a fence or rail to prevent people falling in along the towpath.

What compounds my lack of comprehension about this action is that the new construction does not span the whole width of the old bridge, but leave a 20 centimetre shelf on either side of the rails where someone can shuffle out over the water.  I'm no longer a child, but I very much expect this to be very attractive to people of that age once they discover the bridge.  It seems to me they've only partly negated the danger by introducing a new one!

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox.  I commend the council for providing another bridge to replace one sadly vandalised about 5 years ago.  This at least re-creates a loop walk which proved almost impossible unless you were wearing wellington boots or it was the 'dry' season.  I just feel it is a touch of health and safety gone mad.  I'm sure they could have also come up with a more elegant solution utilising the original surface of the bridge and not creating these shelves.