Thousands of people walk across the bridge every day to get from South Bristol to Temple Meads and the city centre. As the weather<\/a> gets wetter, the puddle has made its comeback, making people stop and check if a car is coming, and then run to the safety of the other side.<\/p>\n The wider area around Temple Meads will form a multi-million pound regeneration scheme over the next few years, with huge upgrades to infrastructure around the city\u2019s main train station. Yet Bristol City Council<\/a> appears unable to prevent this puddle from reappearing whenever it rains.<\/p>\n Similar puddles torment pedestrians elsewhere across Bristol, like on St John\u2019s Lane for example, and many underpasses too. Leading councillors faced questions about the infamous puddle on the Bath Road, during a member forum meeting on November 4.<\/p>\n Liberal Democrat Councillor Sarah Classick said: \u201cAs the weather has turned worse over the last month or two and we\u2019re seeing more rainfall, it\u2019s getting increasingly difficult for pedestrians to avoid being splashed by puddles at the side of the road.<\/p>\n \u201cTwice one night on my way out and back, myself and several pedestrians had to complete a fast sprint on the Bath Bridge roundabout to get past a particularly vicious puddle during a short gap in the traffic. What is being done to improve our roads so that pedestrians can move around in bad weather without ending up too wet and muddy?\u201d<\/p>\n The Temple Quarter regeneration<\/a> has benefited from \u00a395 million of government support, and will include 10,000 new homes, space for 22,000 new jobs, new entrances to the station and a new university campus. A southern entrance to the station<\/a> will be built just south of the puddle, with work starting next summer and lasting two years. This could include repairing the drains.<\/p>\n In a written response, Green Cllr Ed Plowden, chair of the transport policy committee, said: \u201cHighway drains on our main roads are cleansed on an annual cyclical basis and tested to ensure that they are freely running. The gullies on the Bath Bridge roundabout have been scheduled to be cleansed next week at night to avoid causing traffic congestion.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that I have experienced this for many years, I have asked for the service to investigate what can be done to proactively address this problem. If significant engineering is needed I have asked whether we can undertake this work alongside, or as part of the roadworks that will be required for the Temple Meads Southern Gateway.\u201d<\/p>\n Green councillors often talk about \u201cmodal shift\u201d \u2014 trying to get more people to walk and cycle and fewer people driving, to reduce congestion and pollution. Many controversial transport changes aim to make walking and cycling more attractive. But if pedestrians can\u2019t avoid getting drenched without sprinting past a puddle, driving might still be the favoured option for many.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Problems with the drains could finally get fixed in the next few years A \u201cparticularly vicious\u201d puddle is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,3893,748,393,4884,14144,11518,285,30437,141331,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-577006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-council","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-green-party","14":"tag-liberal-democrats","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-temple-meads","17":"tag-temple-quarter","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115567319567667188","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251114_123911.jpg\")
The puddle often appears during wet weather(Image: Alex Seabrook)<\/p>\n