STAND-OFF IN ROW OVER PLAYING FIELDS FENCE
‘WE LOVE STOKE LODGE’ POLICE CALLED AS LOCAL RESIDENTS BLOCK START OF SCHOOL’S WORK TO ERECT FENCE AROUND OPEN SPACE
LOCAL residents blocked the start of work to fence off a section of an open space in Bristol yesterday as a long-running row about a school playing field turned ugly.
Protesters from a campaign group called ‘We Love Stoke Lodge’ prevented work beginning to erect a fence around part of the open space in Westbury-on-Trym, with what the school described as ‘outrageous behaviour’.
Cotham School has been embroiled in a long-running saga for years to try to secure an area of Stoke Lodge for PE lessons, but when work finally began to erect a fence, contractors found a small army of local residents blocking their way.
The drama began soon after 8am yesterday, when the first contractors from a fencing company arrived at Stoke Lodge to set up their base and begin groundwork for the controversial fence.
The ‘We Love Stoke Lodge’ residents soon mustered a response through a ‘phone tree’ system, and within minutes a group of around 25-30 protesters had assembled and blocked more arrivals of contractors.
Police were called, and the protesters said they were determined to stop work from harming protected trees.
In a video recorded by the Bristol Post, campaign spokesperson Helen Powell also made claims about a gas main under the site, that the work did not have the council’s permission, that the funding organisation backing the project had paused its funding, and that a freshly-applied-for Town and Village Green application meant the work should not go ahead yet.
The school vehemently disputed all of those claims, said the work was going ahead perfectly legitimately, and slammed the protesters for disrupting them.
The Stoke Lodge playing fields, on the border of Sea Mills, Stoke Bishop and Westbury-on-Trym, are owned by Bristol City Council and leased to Cotham School, which is based on a site in a built-up area without any playing fields, more than two and a half miles away.
Cotham School allows public access to the fields but says it wants to fence off an area for sports pitches to keep dogs off when children are playing sports.
Local residents in the area are opposing that, and the size and scale of the fence, and that has sparked a prolonged dispute, which has ended up in the High Court, in the council chamber and in an increasingly bitter war of words on social media.
Yesterday morning, with the arrival of contractors to actually build the fence for the first time, that spilled over into a real-life confrontation.
“Our main aim this morning is to prevent any posts being drilled into the ground, until we can be sure that the school has lawful authority to do this,” said Helen Powell.
“All around the site there are protected trees. Drilling into the roots of protected trees is a criminal offence,” she claimed.
“We’ve also had to alert the school, which they apparently didn’t know, that there’s an underground gas pipe running all along here, so they should have obtained prior written authority to drill into the ground around a gas pipe, and they haven’t yet done that,” she added.
“So there are all sorts of questions around the consequences of their actions, and they seem to be proceeding in a very unprepared way.
“But our primary objective is to prevent this from happening until
Our main aim this morning is to prevent any posts being drilled into the ground, until we can be sure that the school has lawful authority to do this
Campaign spokesperson Helen Powell
Their behaviour is just outrageous – we have the right to do this without obstruction and harassing of any of our staff
Cotham School facilities manager Nathan Allen
we can be sure that all the proper authorities are happy with it happening,” she added.
“The reason that that’s really contentious, is that last week there was a Town and Village Green Application form validated for this site, so any fence that goes up may need to come down.
“The fence is funded by public money and we also have seen written confirmation from the funding agency that they have suspended that funding, on the grounds that this project is so hugely contentious.
“So what is very unclear at the moment is how the school is proposing to pay for this, where they are getting the money from, and whether they have any kind of lawful authority to spend their school funds on this project,” she added.
Those claims were described as ‘completely untrue’ by Cotham School’s business manager Allison Crossland and its facilities manager Nathan Allen, as Bristol City Council confirmed to the Bristol Post yesterday that the school was within its rights and the terms of its lease to undertake the fence work.
Mr Allen said he had been in consultation for more than a week with the gas authorities about the gas main, the funding had been agreed and confirmed at the end of last week, and the contractors were well aware and had been properly briefed on protecting the trees.
He described the protesters’ behaviour as ‘particularly challenging’, and said he would be working with the police on a plan if the protesters continued to obstruct work today.
“Today has been particularly difficult in the way the protesters have acted,” he said.
“The public are allowed there with our permission, and to obstruct the lawful and legitimate work of school staff and our contractors, and to refuse to leave if asked. It’s a criminal act.
“It’s a school playing field, and the staff of a school should reasonably expect to go about their work there without nuisance or disruption,” he added.
Mr Allen said the protesters – who included at least two local Conservative city councillors – had misled staff and the police.
“The behaviour is outrageous. We just want to get on with doing what we are allowed to do to secure our playing fields,” he said.
“We have the right to do this without this obstruction and harassing of any of our staff,” he added.
Mr Allen said protesters had reassured police they would not block contractors’ vehicles arriving, but then did – and another protester parked a van across the road entrance so that one contractor could not leave the site again.
“There’s been a lot of passive aggressive behaviour.
“These people are being deliberately antagonising, and it’s not a particularly pleasant environment.
“The worst thing is that we’re not excluding them with this fence. All we are doing is erecting a fence which will have gates that allow public access – apart from when the fields are in use as playing fields.
“Any school, where there is a PE teacher and 30 children, has to be allowed to conduct a PE lesson – a game of football or whatever – without worrying about dogs off leads running up to children, because at the end of the day, that is all this is about,” he added.
School staff were set to meet with police chiefs ahead of today’s work – with the expectation of more friction.
Darren Jones, MP for Bristol North West, said: “I’m sorry to have seen the events unfold today.
“In light of the validated TVG application and the offer from our Mayor to mediate a solution that works for everyone, it seems that the school has decided now is the best time for them to go ahead anyway.
“If all of the legal issues had been resolved in their favour, and a real effort had been made to mediate the issue, then I could understand their actions. But today – in my view – is an act of bad faith.
“I’m obviously in Westminster at the moment but my office and I continue to liaise with the excellent Emma and Helen to offer what help we can.
“Keep making your voices heard, keep warm and please don’t break the law!”