A shortcut in Henbury could be declared a public footpath seven years after it was fenced off to deter “drunks and druggies”.
The route starts on Crow Lane near the Coop and crosses a commercial yard before exiting at Machin Road opposite the Machin Road Public Car Park.
It was blocked in 2012 when the owner of the yard installed metal gates at either end and put up signs saying “private” and “no public right of way”.
But Bristol City Council intends to declare the route a public right of way unless there are any objections.
Councillors agreed to the move on April 15 after hearing evidence from a council officer that: “There was no particularly strong evidence for this route existing but nor was there any evidence of any buildings being in the way or such things that would mean this route could not exist.”
Jean Rowbottam, who bought the yard behind 147 Crow Lane from Bristol City Council in 2007, claims she blocked the entry and exit after consulting with the council and police.
The Police Community Trust of Avon and Somerset Police even contributed £1,500 towards the cost of the gates, she wrote in a letter to the council in January.
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“It was in no way a safe, suitable or viable shortcut,” she said. “Especially as drunks and druggies were evident.”
Ms Rowbottam said council officers and police saw for themselves “the amount of fly-tipping, burnt-out vehicles, dumped furniture set alight, illegal parking, gangs of adolescents drinking and taking drugs, dealing drugs, and numerous syringes, needles”.
But six of eight members of the public who provided evidence to the council said they either believed the route was a footpath or used it as a shortcut, mainly to get to the shops.
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“No witnesses reported ever being told that the way was not public, or being stopped from using the route,” according to a report prepared for the public rights of way and greens committee.
Most of them remembered a “restriction” but none recalled any “impassable obstructions” blocking the route in the 20 years before the fences were put up, the report stated.
A tubular barrier barred the way from Crow Lane to all but pedestrians during that period.
“Only certain individuals tried squeezing through [the gap] as a shortcut, mostly children and adolescents, usually several times a day,” Ms Rowbottam said in her submission to the council.
“But I have told them, on many, many occasions, that it was not to be used as a shortcut and turned them away.”
The six councillors on the public rights of way and greens committee voted unanimously to accept the officer’s recommendations regarding the route running between 147 and 149 Crow Lane and crossing the yard at the rear of 143-147 Crow Lane.
The council’s legal team will create and advertise an order to show the claimed footpath in its official Definitive Map and Statement.
The map will be changed to show the footpath if there are no objections.
