Petition launched to urgently repair flooded path

A petition has been launched calling for urgent repairs to a popular walkway that has frequently flooded this winter.

Bristol City councillor Louis Martin and the Friends of Oldbury Court Park campaign group started the petition and said the estate path in the Fishponds area of the city was being damaged and washed away whenever the River Frome, which runs alongside it, floods.

Pedestrians use the path to get to school, work, shops, or to spend time in nature, but recent flooding has forced people to take alternative routes.

A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said the flooding was being monitored and solutions for the problem were being explored.

Martin said the council was aware that "major work" needed to be carried out at the site, but short-term solutions could help the problem.

"The water is coming out of the river, and there's a gap in it, and it's going onto the path," he said.

"We just want to plug the gap, channel the water back into the river and then just raise the path.

"The longer we leave it, the more it's going to degrade and the more it's going to cost the council in the long run."

Kate Spreadbury, from the campaign group, said the path had been flooding for years.

"It's really dangerous," she said.

"I've heard reports of some older women who tried to get on the muddy bank by the path to avoid getting their shoes really wet, and they got stuck and were frightened."

More than 1,100 people have signed the petition so far.

Martin said he would present it to the council for consideration when it reached 2,000 signatures.

A spokesperson for the local authority said: "The flooding of the path is being monitored and is an issue that's been discussed at length with local groups and community representatives.

"Options to find viable solutions are being explored, as are routes to source the funding needed."