here s the dirt
about 3 or 4 years a go a was curious as to what use some 6 x 6 steel posts that were being put in at cranfleet lock by BW and was told they were people counters.
they stand about 4 ft high with just a small keyhole in them , ive seen a fair few of them about i queried it with bw at the time as to why they were wasting money on them to count pedestrians and the reply was if they could prove that there was XXX amount of visitors they would get extra funding,
I was also told that they didnt cost anything as they were made in house,,which made me chuckle as i dont know anyone who works for nothing(free steel, free labour installing them, free electronic wizardry inside)