Row over Bristol school playing field goes to High Court

A 15-year saga about who has access to a council-owned green space in Bristol is currently before a judge at the High Court. The battle over the Stoke Lodge playing fields in Stoke Bishop is the subject of a five-day hearing at the High Court, sitting at the Civil Justice Centre in Redcliffe this week, with a ruling from a judge expected to take weeks afterwards.

The court has heard bosses and former employees of Cotham School give evidence for the first three days of the hearing this week. They have been questioned by lawyers representing local residents about why they want to quash the status of the green space as a Town or Village Green, and erect a fence around much of it.

The playing fields are the grounds of the former Stoke Lodge manor house, which had been an adult learning centre for decades. The council leased the grounds to Cotham School, a secondary school based around two and a half miles away, to be used as that school’s playing fields for PE.

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The council issued a 125-year lease but in 2019, Cotham School erected a fence around most of the playing fields, saying issues with public access to the pitches - and in particular the problem of dog mess on the fields - meant they had to fence off the parts of Stoke Lodge they needed for safety and safeguarding reasons.

That brought an ongoing battle between local residents and Cotham School to a head, and has now eventually led to the courts this week.

-Credit:Martin Bennett
-Credit:Martin Bennett

The campaigners living around Stoke Lodge wanted the fence down and the school to share the space with the general public. They successfully established the rights of way for public footpaths across the fields, and then persuaded councillors at City Hall to award Town or Village Green status to the green space.

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That meant Cotham School could no longer fence it off and restrict access to it permanently - something which the school has now taken to the courts. Cotham School has appealed against the city council awarding Town Green status on the fields, in a legal action that has and will cost the school hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The five-day hearing involves a judge ruling whether the city council were right to give Town Green status to the fields. A verdict is expected to take several weeks.