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Latest legal saga over Stoke Lodge playing fields
The ongoing saga over the rights to use Stoke Lodge playing fields has taken a new twist.
Campaigners fighting to see the land in Stoke Bishop retained as a protected village green have accused Bristol City Council of effectively trying to “sue itself” in an upcoming judicial review.
This follows the decision made by Cotham School in November last year to appeal the registration of the 23-acre site as a village green, a classification that means the fields must be shared with the wider community.
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The situation is complicated by the fact that, in this case, Bristol City Council wears more than one hat.
As a landowner, the council is objecting to the village green status and is seeking to switch from defendant to claimant in the case “to better maintain its objection and to ensure that the matter is resolved in the public interest”.
But it was also a council committee that granted the Stoke Lodge field village green status. The cross-party group of councillors on the Public Rights of Way and Greens Committee voted to register the space as a village green in June 2023, meaning the controversial fence around its perimeter would need to be removed.
The school maintains that the fence needs to be in place – and dogs not allowed within it – for it to continue PE lessons there safely.
Campaigners fighting to see the land in Stoke Bishop retained as a protected village green have accused Bristol City Council of effectively trying to “sue itself” in an upcoming judicial review – photo: We Love Stoke Lodge
In legal terms, the committee that granted the special status acted as the Commons Registration Authority.
The council – as a landowner – is now seeking to switch from being a defendant to a claimant in the the upcoming judicial review, so it will be siding with the school that the land should not be classed as a village green.
The council – as the Commons Registration Authority – will seek to take a neutral position and leave it for the High Court to decide whether the playing fields should be registered as a village green.
This leaves one named defendant remaining, Kathy Welham, who applied for the village green status on behalf of the local community.
A representative from We Love Stoke Lodge campaign group has slammed the council’s change of position, saying: “Bristol City Council continues to shock us with its unlawful and undemocratic antics. There has never been a level playing field when it comes to Stoke Lodge, but this latest twist is particularly shocking. How can our council want to jump the fence and go to court against itself and the residents of Bristol? This decision is unprecedented, unlawful, unconstitutional, and anti-democratic.”
The group added: “Cotham School is an academy, wholly independent of the council – but still Bristol City Council is proposing to spend huge sums of our council tax on suing itself and fighting against its own residents.”
A source close to Cotham School says there should be a distinction made between the council as a landowner and the committee of councillors who made the decision on the village green status.
The source added: “This application is the reason the school have said the fence should remain in place for the time being. It is also the reason that means the fence wouldn’t be ordered to be removed (thus is not illegal at this time).
“This matter needs to be finalised in the courts, should the school and Bristol City Council as landowner fail to overturn the registration, the fence would then be an issue, not before.”
Confirming the council’s intentions, a spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: “The school is challenging the decision by councillors on the Public Rights of Way and Greens Committee in June 2023 to register Stoke Lodge as a village green.
“The council, which is also the landowner in this case, continues to support efforts for a binding and conclusive resolution.”
Main photo: Cotham School
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