A decades-long row over school playing fields in Bristol will come to a head next week with a final decision about a controversial fence. An inner city school uses the playing fields at Stoke Lodge, north-west Bristol, but locals say the land should be kept open for the public.
Pupils at Cotham School have used the Stoke Lodge playing fields since 2011 and a fence around the site was put up in 2019. But Bristol City Council could decide on Wednesday, June 28, to register the playing fields as a “town green”, legally keeping it open to the public.
Small signs put up at the playing fields by Avon County Council in the 1980s are expected to play a major role in the decision. Councillors on the public rights of way and greens committee must follow arcane law and read heaps of legal documents from both sides.
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The disputed land in Stoke Bishop was originally the extensive grounds of a large house called Stoke Lodge, which was sold to Bristol City Council after the second world war, when the grounds became playing fields and also popular with dog walkers.
Four years ago Cotham School put up the fence, which they say is needed to keep pupils safe. The secondary school leases the land from the council, and allows members of the public access to the playing fields when not in use by pupils, apart from those with dogs.
Philip Petchey, a barrister, was appointed by the council as an independent inspector to provide legal advice on the town green application. He recommended that the committee refuse the application, meaning that the school could keep its controversial fence.
In a report to the committee, Mr Petchey said: “It would seem that in 1985 or 1986, Avon County Council put up three notices which made it clear that the council were contesting the use. The law is that sufficient steps have to be taken by a landowner to communicate to users that their use is contentious. In the circumstances I considered that it was.
“Although the fact that a sign says ‘Avon County Council’ rather than “Bristol City Council” does not mean that the day after Bristol City Council takes over from Avon County Council, the notice ceases to have any effect.”
The presence of the signs means the public did not use the land “as of right”, a legal technicality. But according to campaigners, the two signs warned against trespassing and riding horses on the playing field, and had no legal powers after 1996 when Avon County Council was abolished.
Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol, Helen Powell from the We Love Stoke Lodge campaign, said: “It’s a beautiful green space in an area where all the other green spaces have been developed over the years. For many people in that area, that’s the only green space that they can walk to.
“If you’re young and fit and mobile, you can get up to the Downs, but actually a lot of people can’t do that. This is the walkable green space, and the only one that’s left. You never know if the gates are going to be open or shut, so it looks closed the whole time. The opening times vary, to suit the school.”
She added that relations between the school and locals soured during the pandemic lockdown, when people living nearby were denied access to walk through most of the playing fields. She also claimed that the barrister made errors in his report to the committee.
