Photographs © John H. Luxton 2007

During the mid 1990s much money was poured into regenerating the area around the Mersey Ferries Terminal at Birkenhead. As part of this work, the former floating roadway cut was landscaped with timber decking and the installation of a couple of buoys complete with electric illumination at night. However, in the few years that have passed since the work was completed the water feature has steadily deteriorated, stagnant water is covered with floating rubbish, there is at least one partially submerged bicycle and the illumination has been ripped out. There appears to have been no effort made to maintain this once, briefly attractive feature.

One should not be surprised if the Pier Head Canal Link does not degenerate into such a mess once the initial novelty has worn off!