Turbo Island ‘village green’ row too complex for council lawyers

Next steps on the Turbo Island “village green” row will be agreed in the coming days as council lawyers say the case is too complex.

Instead they will use taxpayer money to hire an expensive barrister who will examine whether the infamous corner in Stokes Croft should be protected.

Last autumn campaigners applied to get Bristol City Council to register Turbo Island, on the corner of Stokes Croft and Jamaica Street, as a town or village green.

This would prevent developers from building on the site, as plans were previously mooted for a four-storey block.

In April, councillors on the public rights of way and greens committee weighed up whether to hire an expensive barrister, or get the council’s own solicitors to figure out whether the site could be protected.

Three months later and council solicitors have admitted they cannot figure it out.

Now the committee will meet again, on July 10, when they will likely approve hiring a barrister.

While it’s unclear how much one will cost, lawyers don’t tend to come cheap.

Then the barrister will write a detailed report looking at all the different legal angles on protecting the site.

When the committee met the last time in April, Green councillor Abi Finch said: “My concern with this route is that we spend a lot of time and money on officers’ time to write a report.

“The officers who are going to be writing that report are already telling us that the recommendation is to get an inspector.

“And then that advice says ‘get an inspector’, and we’ve spent a load more money and got to the same conclusion. That’s a lot more money than just getting an inspector to begin with.”

Turbo Island once had grass growing on it which was cared for by the local community – photo: PRSC

Councillors could have chosen to proceed with getting a barrister, known as an inspector, last April.

This would have saved three months in the long and drawn out process of deciding whether to register Turbo Island as a village green.

However they had hoped the council’s own solicitors might be able to answer the questions themselves, saving thousands of pounds.

A new council report said: “It has become clear that before the application can proceed the committee will require clear legal advice on whether the matter can proceed or whether a trigger event or statutory incompatibility apply, in which case the application is barred by statute from proceeding.

“This is a complex area of law and, in officers’ view, requires specialist advice.”

The law around village greens is notoriously complex.

A similar battle has lasted more than a decade elsewhere in Bristol, due to a row over the Stoke Lodge Playing Fields.

Cotham School put up a fence around the fields, which are used for PE. But local residents wanted the site kept open, so they applied to get the council to register the fields as village green.

Due to legal reasons, the council’s decision centred on two tiny signs put up decades ago, and whether people noticed them.

The council hired a barrister and the registration eventually happened, and the fence was taken down.

Then last month, a High Court judge quashed the council’s decision to register the fields, so the fence could soon be put back up.

Main photo: Alex Seabrook

Read next:

• Turbo Island: vital community space or hub for antisocial behaviour?
• Cotham School introduces new initiative to create ‘phone-free space’
• Pupil power wins the day against ‘discriminatory’ new uniform rule