Our posh neighbourhood is ruined by famous balloon festival… we dread this time of year – we’re prisoners in our homes
RESIDENTS of a posh Bristol neighbourhood have told how their area is being ruined by a famous balloon festival.
Locals complain they can’t get to sleep at night because of “rowdy” revellers watching the four-day annual event.
And they moan they are “imprisoned” in their own homes because the roads are clogged up with traffic day and night.
This year’s Bristol International Balloon Fiesta kicked off on Thursday, attracting the usual thousands of enthusiasts to the village of Long Ashton.
Cops and highways officials spent the previous 24 hours plonking truckloads of bollards along the only road in and out of the village to prevent anyone parking along the busy route.
As a result, parking spaces in side streets quickly filled up, leaving locals with nowhere to park close to their homes.
Some were so desperate they even coughed up £10 to park in a car park behind a pub in the village.
One despairing resident said: “It’s the same every year. We dread this ruddy balloon festival.
“I wish they’d find somewhere else to hold it – like the Sahara!”
Another, Rachel Newman, 38, said the noise made by visitors as they make their way home after the event closes late in the evening keeps her and her family awake.
She told The Sun: “Our home is on the main road so we have to put up with thousands and thousands of people coming past us on foot to get back to their cars or public transport.
“They are so rowdy and make such a racket that it’s impossible to get to sleep.
“It goes on until after midnight.
“I’ve got an eight-year-old daughter and she needs her sleep.”
Ms Newman said the din is only half the problem.
She explained: “There’s the traffic problem too. It’s an absolute nightmare because the roads round here get completely congested at the best of times, but during the balloon festival it’s pandemonium.
“I needed to take my daughter up to Birmingham and the roads up to the M5 were so slow it took me hours just to get to the motorway.
“Then when we finally hit the motorway, we had to contend with all the holiday traffic. It is just impossible to live a normal life when this event is on.
“I know it’s a great event to watch because the balloons are such a spectacle when they’re in the sky above, but down here on the ground, it’s not always so much fun.”
Landscape artists Tom Kelly, 31, and Jason Tarbet, 43, say they find parking a nightmare due to a plethora of bollards lining the main road through Long Ashton.
Mr Tarbet said: “I love seeing the hot air balloons when they’re in the sky, but there’s no doubt it creates a lot more traffic around here.
“The main problem is there’s only one road in and out, so it can get pretty heavy sometimes.
“I think they need to lay on more public transport.
“It would also improve things if they put a railway station in here. It seems crazy that a place like this with so much going on has no rail station any more.”
Mr Kelly added: “I’ve noticed the extra traffic, that’s for sure. It seems very busy
“But I enjoy watching the balloons so it’s not all bad.”
Another local, who asked not to be identified, said he was “sick and tired” of the annual “chaos” descending on his village, where he has lived all his life.
The man, in his mid-sixties, said: “Frankly, it’s a bloody nuisance and I wish they’d bugger off somewhere else.
“I feel imprisoned in my own home for a week every year because I can’t go anywhere while it’s on.
“Forget driving because the roads are grid-locked and you can’t go for a quiet stroll because there’s too many people. I dread this time of year.”