News / Politics
‘Unlawful’ decision on Stoke Lodge playing fields overturned
A seven-year legal battle over Stoke Lodge playing fields could finally be coming to an end after councillors agreed to reject an application to grant it special status on Monday.
Members of Bristol City Council’s public rights of way and greens committee had granted the fields, located just off Shirehampton Road, Town and Village Green (TVG) status back in December 2016.
But Cotham School – which had a 125-year lease to use the land – launched an appeal in the High Court and won after the judge deemed the committee had “acted unlawfully” by not properly analysing the evidence when it granted TVG status.
is needed now More than ever
Cotham School had a long-running lease to use the fields
During a meeting on Monday, the committee was asked to review its decision and, following the High Court ruling, officers had recommended it now reject the TVG application.
One of the main issues seems to be signage and whether members of the public had seen signs on the playing fields that said the land was private.
Signs had been displayed around the fields since the 1980s, warning the public that it is private land.
Despite the High Court ruling, local residents were not deterred from from attending Monday’s meeting and pleading with the committee to still grant the playing fields village green status.
Resident Emma Burgess told the committee that it was a “procedural error the judge had ruled against rather than the merit of the application” and implored the committee to look at the application with “fresh eyes”.
And Judith Evans said the committee had the chance to do something “amazing” by maintaining the public access to the fields.
Following a split vote from the committee, newly-elected chairman Mike Langley used his casting vote to officially reject the application for Stoke Lodge playing fields to be given TVG status.
Peter Abraham
During the meeting, Peter Abraham, a Conservative councillor for Stoke Bishop, said the committee’s “democratic decision” to register the land as a village green should be endorsed.
Abraham said: “I have been a member of this committee for a long time and was chairman of a similar committee at Avon County Council.
“I am not a lawyer, I am democratically elected to represent a particular ward and the city of Bristol. And to be honest I find it strange that that is being challenged.
“In the end this is our decision. I am not going to waste my time in future if someone else is going to just come along and make the decision instead.”
But Donald Alexander, a Labout councillor for Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston, said the council had spent £45,000 just in the last year on trying to defend the decision to give Stoke Lodge playing fields TVG status.
He said it was now time to say “enough” and make sure that money was better spent on “children’s centres and libraries”.
The campaign for village status has generated huge support from residents with hundreds of people actively engaging in the attempts to keep access to the fields public.
During the meeting Sandra Fryer, vice-chair of the governors at Cotham School, said one-third of the area would remain open to the public and the rest would be used as the school playing fields.
Kate Wilson is a local democracy reporter for Bristol.
Read more: Call for resignations in wake of High Court ruling over Stoke Lodge playing fields
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