News / New Cut
Council to ask government for millions needed to fix New Cut walls
Tens of millions of pounds are needed for a project lasting decades to stop roads in Bristol collapsing into the New Cut.
Main roads including York Road, Cumberland Road and Coronation Road run along the tops of the walls whose conditions are rapidly deteriorating.
Three extra sites were recently spotted as needing urgent repairs on Coronation Road near Vauxhall Bridge, close to the Co-Op further along Coronation Road and near Gaol Ferry Bridge.
An extra £8.2m has been approved by councillors on the transport policy committee to be spent on repairs, on top of an existing £10.5m already budgeted for.
But this still falls far short of the total amount needed, including £10m annually for the next five years, and Bristol City Council will call on the government for help.
Damage to the New Cut walls can clearly be seen from the Chocolate Path – photo: Martin Booth
Green councillor Ed Plowden, chair of the transport committee, said: “We did take a risk putting all of this information out without having the funding in place.
“But I think it’s the right thing to do because it demonstrates we know what’s going on and that we’re going to take it seriously.
“It helps us hopefully convince anyone that can help, such as WECA or the Department for Transport.
“It’s the right decision to put this out into the public domain, so that people know what the state is and we can start setting out our case early.”
In 2020 a large section of the wall between the New Cut and Cumberland Road collapsed.
This prompted the council to check the condition of the river walls which were built more than 200 years ago, and two years later 67 sites were identified as a major risk as they support main roads.
The council has a legal duty to maintain the roads. If any walls holding up roads collapsed, leading to deaths, injuries, floods or property damage, the council could face criminal charges.
Several parts of the New Cut walls have now partially collapsed, prompting the calls for government help.
Council staff were asked why estimated repair costs are increasing, with principal structures manager Christopher Dooley saying that “a lot of the work was about investigation”.
Dooley said: “Once you investigate, then you find out about the problems. The scope of work is exponentially increasing the more we look into it.
“Moving forward, we’re likely to encounter far more issues. This is a project that will go into decades, in terms of dealing with the risks.”
Stabilisation work is continuing on York Road – photo: Bristol City Council
Conservative councillor Graham Morris added: “There’s a risk of reputational damage again. We had it with the Cumberland Road collapse. We don’t want that to be repeated.
“I would dread to think what would happen if somewhere like Cumberland Road or Coronation Road was to go under.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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