As councillors we work hard to get things done, and there’s nothing we like more than a good local success, but sometimes it turns out to be difficult for all sorts of different reasons.

This is one such example – still a “work in progress” but I’ve been frustrated so far.

At the back of Gatley Station car park there’s a strip of land – a path running from the tunnel under the railway across towards the South Park Road Estate. Whenever there’s lots of rain, it gets very muddy and we often end up with big pools of water – which is a real pain if you want to walk from the South Park Road estate to the station.

So, the question is, can we get it sorted?

The Council’s Public Rights of Way team have taken a look. They reckon the area’s in a dip and has no drainage. That’s a pain. If there was a blocked grid, we could get it unblocked but putting in new draining where there’s currently none can be a major piece of work (even more so as, I believe, we can’t simply connect it up to the nearest existing drain any more).

The path isn’t owned by the Council (I don’t know who does own it yet. I’d guess it’s Network Rail – that could be wrong).

The next step is whether the Council can force the landowner to take action. Apparently not. In law, it is – I’m told – OK for a footpath to flood on occasion. Only if it were pretty much permanently flooded would legal action be possible.

My next step is to find out who owns the land and try to persuade and encourage them to voluntarily improve the footpath. It’s probably not quick and it’s definitely not something I can guarantee a positive outcome for, but if it is Network Rail or some other Rail network company that owns it, we might be able to have it improved at some point.

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