Bristol Road so bad they get hurt just walking on it

Residents of a dead-end lane in Bristol say the surface of their road is so dangerous that people are seriously injured just walking on it – but decades of complicated uncertainty over who is responsible for it means the road has been neglected by the city council for years.

One man suffered a badly sprained ankle and others were also injured, tripping over the broken, potholed and crumbling road surface of St Anne’s Terrace, a narrow lane near the railway line in St Anne’s Park, Brislington, which dates back hundreds of years – and boasts a road surface that is closer to a Victorian carriage track than a modern road.

Bristol City Council says it “knows the road is in a bad state”, but the question of who is responsible for maintaining the road is a complicated one with legal history. Residents of the 11 houses along the road say it is easily the worst in Bristol and the council must act now before anyone else is hurt there.

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St Anne’s Terrace is an old lane on the main road linking Brislington with St Anne’s – it is found on maps dating from the 18th century and after the war when the country estate it gave access to was sold to the town council, she was held. by Bristol City Council and provided access to the Nightingale Valley nature reserve and the south bank of the River Avon.

But for decades before that, some – but not all – of the 11 houses along it had to share maintenance costs with whoever owned it, and the complicated nature of the legal arrangement effectively meant that done little to bring it back or make it safe. for years and years.

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As well as the 11 homes and access to the nature reserve, the Environment Agency has also used the access road and allotments and a forestry school are now on St Anne’s Terrace, so it is well used by vehicles and pedestrians – especially parents. and children.

For the past four years, one of the residents who lives there, Emily Dennys, has been trying to get the council to act as she and her neighbors have seen the road deteriorate, break up and revert to its Victorian status as a cart track. .

The condition of the road has become much worse after the council re-routed run-off from the main road at the top, meaning that during heavy rain a small river of water ends up running through it into their gardens.

Mrs Dennys’ husband badly sprained his ankle on the broken road surface recently and she said the council had done next to nothing about the situation. “The state of our road is now so bad, it’s really dangerous,” she said. “I’ve been trying to fill the potholes for over four years. Hundreds of pedestrians use it every day and we can barely get down without damaging our vehicles.”

After being told by the council that the road had not been ‘adopted’ as a public road, Emily and the other residents enlisted historians, researchers and legal experts to try and show the council that they were responsible for the road, and they succeeded.

“Based on research carried out, including analysis of historical records in Bristol archives, combined with information obtained directly from the CCA website, the road is owned by the council,” a report by a resident-commissioned researcher said. “It is not adopted, as it is simply part of the Brooklea estate, which was/was acquired by the BCC at the end of the Second World War.”

Residents of the 11 homes there have tried to get the support of local councilors and local MP Kerry McCarthy, but the road surface is still deteriorating.

Resident Charlie Evans said it had been “neglected for years”. “It’s completely broken. The amount of potholes and cracks and divots and dips everywhere because of years of the council’s neglect and not (being) willing to accept that they have a responsibility for this road,” he said.

“The number of people using this road – the Environment Agency used to use this road as access for boats and all this time we had repair work and nothing serious was done to make this road. it fits the purpose.

“We’ve had injuries, we’ve had people break their ankles, we’ve had vehicle damage. Nothing happened. You put the reports on Fix My Street, you try to get in touch with the councilors – they do their best but they have to go back to the people who deal with these things and it seems to fall on deaf ears. This is something that has been happening easily for decades,” he added.

Bristol Live has approached Bristol City Council regarding the state of St Anne’s Terrace and is still awaiting a response, but local councilor Andrew Varney shared with residents a response he received from council officers, who said it would be a ” long process” to get anything done.

“We are aware that the road is in a poor condition,” the council said in a statement. “Maintenance of the road is a joint responsibility of Bristol City Council and certain properties on St Anne’s Terrace. We have consulted with the legal teams to ensure the correct properties are contacted and will look to seek bids and build a specification.

“Once we have this, we will need to develop a justified and transparent way of calculating the cost for each of the relevant properties. We will then need to communicate this to the owners.

“This will be a long process and may take some time to complete. In the meantime, we will arrange to fill some larger potholes. However, this will not be a permanent solution and we cannot provide a timetable for this as it will be added to a list of other works which will be dealt with in order of priority based on health and safety,” the council added. .