News / Stoke Lodge
Cotham School ‘suspends all permissive public access’ to Stoke Lodge
Stoke Lodge playing fields have been completely closed to the public in the latest escalation of a long-running feud.
It comes after Cotham School attempted to restart PE lessons on the council-owned grounds on Thursday morning, with police called following a stand-off between school staff and local residents.
Cotham students were able to use Stoke Lodge on Friday for the first time in several years but the school claimed the perimeter fence had been damaged overnight and that staff “experienced verbal abuse and threatening behaviour from members of the public”.
The continued tensions are happening in the same week that government planning officers refused Cotham permission to erect CCTV cameras at Stoke Lodge; four years after the school admitted carrying out covert CCTV surveillance of the grounds.
Campaign group We Love Stoke Lodge have reiterated that “no one has an issue with kids doing PE but the school’s landgrab and terrible planning have landed it in a mess”.
They added that Cotham is “behaving in a hostile and aggressive manner” as wellas showing “an absolute lack of good faith towards the council… and to the wider public”.
The Bristol City Council-owned Stoke Lodge is used by Cotham School for sport and PE – photo: Cotham School
In a statement released on Friday evening, a Cotham School spokesperson said: “The safety of our students and staff and the security of our playing fields at Stoke Lodge are Cotham School’s top priorities.
“In response to yesterday’s and today’s disruption by adult individuals seeking to prevent our lawful use of the site, the school has been left with no choice but to lock the gates and suspend all permissive public access.
“This suspension will remain in place until the school can be confident that the public and campaign groups will respect the school’s use of the fields and maintain the security of the fencing.
“This action comes in response to more criminal damage overnight and significant disturbances that occurred yesterday and today.
“Yesterday this prevented the lawful use of the site and the delivery of physical education to our students.
“Today the premises staff attending the site in the morning had to repair the fence and at 1pm after lessons ended they experienced verbal abuse and threatening behaviour from members of the public. This is completely unacceptable.
“Until now, Cotham School has always provided the public with access to the fields when not in use by the school, which is typically every afternoon and at weekends. Dogs have not been permitted on the fields.
“The public is reminded that the claimed Public Rights of Way over the Stoke Lodge playing fields have no legal standing at this time. These rights are only claimed and are not formally registered in law.
“The school will continue to take all necessary steps to protect our use of our site.”
A mile-long fence now prevents public access to the playing fields – photo: Cotham School
In response to Cotham’s latest actions, a We Love Stoke Lodge spokesperson said: “We are disappointed, yet again, that Cotham School is behaving in such a hostile and aggressive manner.
“It should surprise no one that when school representatives arrived at the field to lock the gates yesterday, there were people walking on the public rights of way, but they made it clear that there was no intention to disrupt any lessons…
“The school has now declared that it will lock all the gates, all the time. This is what many people believe they intended to do all along. It is completely unacceptable conduct.
“Many other schools in Bristol and across the UK have public rights of way across playing fields (or use open access land) and do not treat members of the public in the way that Cotham School does.
“The whole episode demonstrates the problems that the school has failed to plan for, when erecting a fence all around the perimeter in full knowledge that four public rights of way lie within the fenced area.
“The school only uses the field for PE lessons of 45 minutes, once or twice a day. It could easily have resolved the whole situation by fencing a smaller area of the field.
“Under section 137 of the Highways Act, it is a criminal offence to wilfully obstruct free passage along a public right of way.
“The school keeps repeating that the public rights of way have no current status, but that is not correct.
“The High Court judge noted that the school’s use under the lease is subject to ‘rights that the local community might have already acquired, such as a public right of way (which does not require registration to come into existence)’.
“The school’s failure to respect the law impacts young children, who cannot now walk a safe route to Stoke Bishop School across the field, elderly people who could manage a short cut across the field but cannot walk a longer route, and thousands of others including those with mobility and other issues.
“It shows an absolute lack of good faith towards the Council (which has said that these rights of way exist) and to the wider public.”
The local community celebrated in 2024 when footpaths crossing Stoke Lodge were formally registered by Bristol City Council – photo: We Love Stoke Lodge
In December, Bristol North West MP Darren Jones wrote a letter to the Planning Inspectorate on behalf of his constituents “to raise their support for maintaining access” to four public rights of way at Stoke Lodge which Bristol councillors voted to formally register in 2024.
Before Cotham suspended access to the fields, Jones wrote that several people had contacted him about “being accosted” for using the permissive paths.
Main photo: We Love Stoke Lodge
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