Salford Council 'hasn't got the money' to save canal cranes
A pair of canal cranes will be demolished because Salford City Council "hasn't got the money to save them".
The cranes on Salford Quays, which have fallen into disrepair since being decommissioned, would be too expensive to save and had to demolished "because of safety fears", a spokesman said.
Mayor Ian Stewart said it would be "wrong to spend £1m on preserving two rusting and dangerous cranes".
The cranes were erected in 1966 and decommissioned in 1988.
The council spokesman said "large pieces of rusted metalwork have already fallen onto the pedestrian footpath below, close to the nearby Metrolink track".
'Rusting and dangerous'
He said that though the bases were fenced off, there would be "further safety fears if the deteriorating cranes are not dismantled and removed permanently".
He added the council had been "working for months to try and find external funding to preserve the cranes but has been unsuccessful".
Work to dismantle the cranes, which will cost in the region of £100,000, will begin in early 2013 and will coincide with Metrolink maintenance work "to avoid unnecessary obstruction and delays".
Mr Stewart said the cranes were "a reminder of the dock workers who built our city... but the current economic climate means we just haven't got the money to save them".
"It would be wrong to spend £1m on preserving two rusting and dangerous cranes, when the people of Salford are struggling to make ends meet," he said.
He added that the council was "working with our partners to try and ensure that at least some part of this symbol of Salford's past can be preserved in the future".