A headteacher has told local councillors that CCTV cameras hidden in a metal box on the school’s playing fields to catch vandals were not a case of ‘covert surveillance’, but instead ‘using overt CCTV which has been installed in a discreet manner’.
Cotham School headteacher Jo Butler made the claim in a letter replying to Stoke Bishop’s two ward councillors, John Goulandris and Henry Michallat, who wrote to the school to express concern after the presence of the cameras was uncovered as revealed by Bristol Live earlier this month.
The school admitted it had installed two ‘wildlife cameras’ inside an electrical junction box at Stoke Lodge, which are owned by Bristol City Council and leased to the school to use as its playing fields, after their presence was spotted by a local resident and reported by the We Love Stoke Lodge campaign group, which has been involved in a 12-year battle with the school over the use of the green space.
