I AM puzzled by the building of these defences.

The River Weaver Navigation that starts at Winsford Town Bridge and extends until it joins the Manchester Ship Canal at Weston Point has sluices in order to control any flooding, the first sluice is situated at Vale Royal and the last one at Frodsham.

Since 1945 we have had flooding twice in Mid Cheshire in 1947 and 1966 when Winsford Market Place and Northwich Bullring were affected.

The river was deepened to 10ft 6ins when steam-powered craft were first used to carry trade from Winsford to Liverpool in the 19th century and the headroom at Winsford Town Bridge was 17ft, so waste material from the salt works could be conveyed to bottom flash to be dumped.

The waste was loaded in dumb barges up to four towed by tugs Firefly and Waterfly.

Since the decision was made to end traffic on the river silting has occurred that has almost obliterated top flash and middle flash and is approaching Winsford Marina the depth of water now at Town Bridge is now only a couple of feet and of course the headroom is much lower.

Would it not have been better to have dredged the river to its proper working depth?

This would have allowed more of a water flow after heavy rainfall and making it possible for the river to carry the salt traffic from Winsford Mine to Liverpool and therefore free Winsford’s roads from most of the heavy goods traffic we have to put up with at present.

Alan Ravenscroft Station Road Winsford