Wandle Trail

The Wandle Trail is a truly marvellous off-road path running from Earlsfield south through Merton.

When you get to London Road, Mitcham, this is the scene:

Your way is blocked, if you're wheelchair-bound, or a parent with a pushchair. Or a cyclist. Or even if you suffer from dizziness by the look of it.
The path is not narrow - certainly no narrower than elsewhere on the Wandle Trail.
This steel structure must have cost thousands, as it's a custom fabrication. I've heard tales that it's to block access for badly-behaved youths with mini-motos or scooters. If that's true then it doesn't work, because it's easy to access the trail and Poulter Park through The Hub which is a few metres up the road. There seems a pretty curious principle at work: to block access to a right of way to a host of legitimate users because a few people break the law?
It's difficult not to conclude that this is a very expensive way of reducing the utility of the Wandle Trail for no good reason.