LOCK keepers in Oxfordshire have won a "minor victory" after their managers scrapped ridiculous plans to stop them using their own fire extinguishers and ladders.

Previously the Environment Agency (EA), which employs lock keepers, said the river workers were not trained to use fire extinguishers and said some safety ladders might be too heavy for them to lift, so all of them should be binned.

But following tests of equipment in January, a working group made up of lock and weir keepers, union and health and safety representatives and EA managers backed down on the plans.

River Thames waterways operations manager Barry Russell said: "The group concluded that, even though it is a legal requirement for boat owners to ensure they have the appropriate number and type of fire extinguishers on board to deal with a fire themselves, we should continue to provide additional extinguishers at lock sites while a lock keeper is on duty."

But, he said, extinguishers must only be used by lock and weir keepers "for helping occupants evacuate boats and reach a safe position" – and not to put out fires on unoccupied boats.

The group also concluded 19 out of the 72 lock ladders currently in use on the Thames were too heavy and would be replaced "at the earliest opportunity" by a lighter design.

They will remain in use until then, but must be used by two people, the EA said.

One Oxfordshire lock keeper who asked not to be named said he and other lock keepers expected to carry on using fire extinguishers and lock ladders as they had always done.

He went on: "They haven't actually told the people whose ladders are too heavy to use yet so we're still using them as we were."

But he said he still felt like only a minor victory in the bigger battle by lock keepers to justify their roles and hold onto their jobs.

The row dates back to 2014 when the EA announced it was axing more than 1,000 jobs that year, including some lock keepers.

The same Oxfordshire lock keeper said: "Without a doubt it feels like we're battling to keep our jobs."