Going North, China Gardens, Water park & South end of the Harecastle tunnel. Stoke-on-Trent isn't the wild west
For those going South who are totally paranoid about stopping in S-O-T, who are last through the tunnel and really do not want to stop anywhere in the area, the lock is over an hour from the end of the tunnel so after 6pm would be quite a feasable time to be trying to transit the flight. If you are at the China Gardens you quite often see boats on the move after 6pm.
However I can see that because there is no access off the towpath from the lock apart from the narrow bridge at the tail of the lock and through a gate to the road on the off side, there is a potential for an serious accident if crowds of people are trying to file across it and also go round the lock beams with an unprotected drop. The temporary bridge thus seems a sensible solution.