Members of a marina community say a landowner's fence left them trapped during floods last week. Boaters at Phoenix Marine say they resorted to using an angle grinder to cut through the metal fence, claiming they were unable to get out for food and medical supplies for days.
Around fifty residents say they were stranded during the recent floods - a situation they say could have been avoided if their concerns had been acted on. They say they have been asking Simon Bendall, the landowner of adjoining Keynsham Marina, for an emergency gate to be put in place so they are able to get out when it floods.
Phoenix resident Joanna Taylor said the fence was built on his field along one boundary in recent years and "has cut the boating community in half, but has also cut off our access to a safe route out in the event of a flood". She added: "It used to be that when things got bad down here, we could canoe or wade out along the higher end of the field but the fortified fence has effectively trapped us in."
Read more: Dramatic drone footage of Conham River Park flooding
In normal conditions they are able to get to dry land via another route, but the floods meant this was not safe because it was blocked by deep and fast-flowing water. Instead they said their only option was to canoe over a flooded field - but first they had to get past the fence.
Ms Taylor, who is one of ten Phoenix residents willing to take the blame for cutting the fence, said that up until four years ago all the residents living on boats in Keynsham Marina and Phoenix Marine lived together as one community. She said this was despite there being two landlords who ran the two separate businesses, but then in 2020 the pontoons were split and the fence was constructed to keep their land separate.
She and others have been contacting Mr Bendall over the difficulties the fence has presented for the community, but she claims their concerns have fallen on deaf ears. “I said to him that when a flood comes you’re going to be put in the strange situation of having your residents put food through the bars of a cage to those on the other side who can’t get out and that’s exactly what happened,” she explained.
Over the weekend Phoenix boating residents reached a tipping point when one resident with cancer, who was said to be living off “oranges and jelly babies”, became anxious that she would not make her hospital appointment. Others were worried about their inability to get to work or pick up vital medicines, Ms Taylor said.
Ms Taylor said that it is not Mr Bendall’s tenants but the “50 odd people” renting moorings at Phoenix who “bear the brunt” of the boating community being split apart. The fence has meant they have to walk 30 minutes to get to the other side of the marina when previously they could just walk across the pontoons, she said.
Ms Taylor has lived at the marina in Keynsham for 12 years and said she knows other residents who have lived there for over 20 years. Her best friend lives on the other side of the fence and she has seen a lot less of her over the last few years, she added, while others who used to share childcare have found that more difficult since they had become divided by the fence.
Ms Taylor said that politely worded emails had been sent to Mr Bendall, but she said he had not been responsive. Bristol Live approached Mr Bendall about residents' complaints but he declined to comment.
Up until the fence was cut on Saturday, residents said they were getting help from neighbours on the other side of the fence to pass food provisions and insulin for one diabetic resident. Some people had been dangling over the river and getting through via the side of the fence, Ms Taylor said, but concerns were expressed about their safety.
Ms Taylor said: “The fence caused difficulties immediately because we’re all one community and we always have been. He’s never explained to us why he put the fence there and why he won’t give us an emergency gate.
“With the recent floods we couldn’t get out, we couldn’t get food, we couldn’t get sanitary products and then my neighbour got ill and she’s going through chemo. At that point we just got fed up.
'Trapped in a scary situation'
“When you can see everyone on the other side of the fence going on as normal and you're trapped in a quite dramatic situation and you’re quite scared because of a fence then you start to feel that it’s very unfair and a bit strange. We agreed to take the blame together and we’ve cut it in a way where we can just weld it up again for him.
“We angle-grinded it in four different places and we put ratchet straps around it so you can swing it like a gate. We actually cried when the fence came down, I don’t think we'd realised how much of an effect it was having on us.
“It was a very emotional situation. There’s a very strong community down here that he’s cut in half.
"It was cruel to see someone go through chemo who is very ill and the only thing she could eat was oranges and Jelly Babies, she was so upset."
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