New path could be built along route of former railway line

A new path for walking and cycling could be built along the route of a former railway line.

Bristol City Council officers had recommended refusal amid fears it would scupper any future wider scheme currently being drawn up to alleviate traffic jams on the “A4 strategic corridor”, which might include public transport, such as metrobus or a relief road.

But they failed to convince a planning committee that granting permission for the temporary three-year active travel route on the “Tramway” in Brislington, along with 50 shipping containers for local artisans, would “prejudice” alternative transport uses.

Councillors approved two interlinked proposals for the Callington Road Link – one for the northern half from Sandy Park Road to Tramway Road, including the cargo units, by Meanwhile Creative, and the other for the southern section continuing beyond Talbot Road by Greenways & Cycleroutes, a charity founded by former Sustrans chief executive John Grimshaw which helps local groups to develop walking and cycling routes.

Dozens of shipping containers for small businesses could be coming to Tramway Road – photo: Martin Booth

Brislington West Lib Dem councillor, Andrew Varney, and Brislington East Labour councillor, Tim Rippington, urged the committee to grant consent following a five-year campaign backed by thousands.

Varney said mayor Marvin Rees and deputy mayor Craig Cheney had both insisted recently there were no plans for a relief road but that “the mayor forgot to send the memo to the transport team”, the only council department to object.

Rippington said a cycle path along the old railway was first proposed in 2010 but had been ruled out because of intentions for a link road, and that the same reasons for refusal were being used again 12 years later.

“To say this proposal is premature is therefore faintly ridiculous,” he said.

“Any scheme to build a fully segregated bus route along the A4 is still several years away and may not need to use the railway path at all.”

The old Brislington Railway Line used to connect the coalfields of Somerset with Bristol docks but has been lying derelict and unused for decades – photo: Martin Booth

Development control committee chairman, Tory councillor Richard Eddy, said he was “completely doubtful” a road would be started in the next three years, by which point the temporary permission for the greenway would have expired.

The council’s head of city transport Adam Crowther told the meeting £130m had been allocated for the A4 corridor from Bristol to Bath in the government’s City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) from 2022-27, so funding was committed for the next five years.

He said the business case would take two to three years and would involve ground investigations and access on site and that he expected the final scheme to be delivered within the five-year CRSTS period.

Eddy added: “This is just the sort of scheme the council has been trialling and encouraging for years so it does rather depress me that we as a council seem to be obstructing progress here.”

Main photo: Bristol City Council

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