News / cliftonwood
Council takes 25 years to process application protecting footpath
Bristol City Council has taken a quarter of a century to process a legal application to protect a public footpath.
The council has a legal duty to deal with applications to register a Public Right of Way “as soon as reasonably practicable” but one application has taken 25 years.
It’s unclear who, in 1998, applied to protect a footpath off Argyle Place in Cliftonwood, close to the Lion pub and the playground known locally as the Lion park, but the council has still not processed the application.
is needed now More than ever
The footpath connects Argyle Place with Cliftonwood Terrace, close to the Mardyke Steps heading down to Hotwell Road which has been closed since January 2020 due to a wall collapsing at the top of the path.
The Lion park and the footpath that now follows the route of the back gardens along Church Lane are located on a bomb site that was not built on following the Second World War, with houses once stretching along here and the opposite side of Argyle Place.
Close to its start on Cliftonwood Terrace, the footpath also passes through the former gardens of the now demolished Cliftonwood Villa, which an advert in the Bristol Times & Mirror from 1868 described as having a fishpond, water fountain, aviary, fowl house and pigeon cote.

The footpath runs between Argyle Place and Cliftonwood Terrace – photo: Martin Booth
Registering a footpath as a Public Right of Way protects the public’s access to well used paths, particularly if a landowner wants to stop people using them.
Several other applications remain pending, including a footpath off Ridgehill in Henleaze, which was made in 2006.
Bristol mayor Marvin Rees has now faced questions about the delays to the council’s legal duty to process applications.
During a member forum meeting, Rees blamed the delays on austerity, which began in 2010 when the Conservative government slashed funding for local councils across the country. But the oldest application was actually made when Labour was in government.
Conservative councillor Steve Smith, representing Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze, said: “I’m not trying to point fingers with this one. I think it would be a little unfair to try and blame you for something that’s been going wrong since before some of the members of this council were born.
“But do you accept that the council does have a clear legal duty here, which at the moment we’re not complying with?”

The footpath starts next to the Lion pub in Cliftonwood – photo: Martin Booth
There are 11 outstanding applications which the council has not yet processed. Rees said priorities were being changed to focus on footpaths which are currently obstructed from public use.
The mayor promised to provide updates on the lengthy delays “very soon”.
He said: “We have lots of legal duties in the council and one of the things we’ve pointed out to the government is that we’re very stretched.
“The challenge we’re facing with local government finance now means that not only are our frontline services being challenged, but also our backroom capacity.
“Anyone will turn up with a placard for libraries, public toilets and parks, but nobody comes and says save our planners, save our lawyers.
“And yet it’s that backroom capacity that keeps these backroom processes working, and when they don’t work people get so frustrated.
“There’s also a committee element to this as well, maybe it’s a taste of things to come, we’ll see.
“Some work is being done to reprioritise the work of the committee, alongside a piece of work with some national legislation, and we’ll streamline the processes and make decisions easier to come to.”
Smith replied: “While it’s unfair to blame you Marvin, I think it’s also a little unfair to blame austerity. This has been going on since Tony Blair was prime minister.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read next:
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- Cliftonwood residents fight to save one of area’s last green spaces
- A-Z Bristol pub crawl: The Lion, Cliftonwood
- Cliftonwood shed nominated for national award
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