MORE than 1,200 people have backed calls for urgent action to fix a leak flooding a footpath on the banks of the River Frome every time it rains.
Whenever the river level rises, water gushes through a gap in the riverbank (bottom right of the picture above) to flood stretches of the Frome Valley Walkway on the Oldbury Court Estate.
The gap is next to a wall at the weir between Snuff Mills and the main access path from Vassalls Park.
As water builds up at the weir, any that is pushed through the gap is channelled along a stretch of path below the level of the wall (to the left in the picture above), making the path impassable.
A petition calling on the city council, which owns the park, to take action has been launched by Frome Vale ward councillor Louis Martin, in collaboration with the Friends of Oldbury Court Park volunteer group.
In its first four days it was signed by more than 620 people and the number has now more than doubled, less than a fortnight after it was first posted.
Cllr Martin said: “Hundreds of people use this public right of way every day to get to school, work, shops, visit family or simply to walk in the park.
“This has a huge effect on everyday life.
“When the path gets flooded, more of it washes away.
“There is a short-term repair that can be cheaply undertaken by Bristol City Council: plug the gap where the river runs in, channel the water back into the river, and slightly raise/restore the footpath.
“Waiting until there are sufficient funds to undertake a large-scale repair means that more costly work will be needed, because so much damage is currently happening every day.”
Friends of the Park chair Kate Spreadbury said water has been collecting in puddles on the affected stretch of the path for around ten years, but the problem has got worse recently.
She said: “Over the years the gap in the riverbank has widened and the path has eroded, so that less of the water runs back into the river.
“We have tried to mitigate the flooding by keeping the fence clear and raised, but the deluge is now too much.
“With the volume of rain we have had, it’s so frequent that it feels pretty constant and people are fed up.”
Frome Vale councillor Al Al-Maghrabi is also encouraging people to sign the petition.
He said: “It needs to be fixed while the damage is still minor before it becomes an even bigger, more costly issue.”
The Voice has asked the city council for a comment on the problem.
The petition can be found on the 38 degrees website.