Police called to 'hostile' school playing field stand-off | Bristol Live

School staff and local residents accused the other of abuse and harassment

Police were called to a school playing fields in Bristol after local residents became involved in a stand-off with school staff.

Officers were called around 8.40am this morning, Thursday (January 15) to the Stoke Lodge playing fields on Shirehampton Road in Stoke Bishop, which are leased to Cotham School to use for PE lessons.

The fields have been the subject of a long-running legal battle and campaign between the school, the city council and local residents, and have not been used by the school for a number of years.

But when staff arrived this morning to lock the gates to ensure the playing fields were empty, secure and ready for lessons to begin later in the morning, there were a number of local residents, including some dog walkers, who refused to leave.

Local residents, who formed the ‘We Love Stoke Lodge’ campaign group, said that although they lost a court case at which a judge confirmed the site was legally a school playing field and not an official Village Green, there are still four footpaths across the site which shouldn’t be blocked by a locked gate.

Police remained on site for a number of hours on Thursday morning, and the local residents on the playing fields eventually left around 10.15am - after the first PE lesson was due to start at 10am.

A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset police said on Thursday morning: “At 8.41am we received a report that two people were being harassed at Stoke Lodge Playing Fields. Officers attended and remain at the scene.”

A spokesperson for Cotham School told Bristol Live that staff first arrived at around 7.30am to prepare the playing fields for PE lessons later this morning, and lock the gates. It was to be the first time in many years that Cotham School used their playing fields for PE, after a long-running dispute over security, access and sharing the land.

The fields were fenced off last autumn with lockable gates, following the court ruling that the land was not a Village or Town Green, and today was to be the first day the school returned to conduct PE lessons there.

“The local residents were blocking the access points and others on the field were refusing to leave,” said a school spokesperson. “It has meant that the school is unable to have PE lessons there today.

“Our intention is to leave the gates unlocked when we are not using the playing fields, but to lock them when we are, and as part of that, staff will lock them in the morning to ensure the fields are secure when the first pupils arrive.

“It is deeply disappointing that even that arrangement to leave the playing fields accessible outside of when they are in use as playing fields is met by this kind of action,” she added. "Because of the actions of these people refusing to leave when asked, we are going to have to keep the gates locked all the time - it's the only way we can ensure that our playing fields are empty, secure and available for the school to use."

Despite the High Court ruling over the legal status of the playing fields, a dispute remains about access and footpaths.

During the year or so Stoke Lodge was designated as a Town or Village Green, the city council’s Rights of Way Committee also agreed that four paths criss-crossing the site should be established as public footpaths.

Cotham School has appealed against that decision, and a public inquiry to decide this is not due to take place until October this year.

In the meantime, there is controversy over whether Bristol City Council would take enforcement action against Cotham School for blocking up the footpaths by fencing off the fields and when they lock the gates.

At a series of council meetings, it appears that the council decided not to take enforcement action, pending the result of the appeal case to decide on the status of the public footpaths, but the campaign group We Love Stoke Lodge say the school is still committing an offence of blocking a public footpath every time it locks the gates.

A spokesperson for We Love Stoke Lodge disputed Cotham School’s version of events this morning, and said the people in the field were merely ‘exercising their right to walk the footpaths’. Both sides accused the other of abusing or harassing them during the argument this morning.

“Cotham School previously stated that it intended to lock the gates to prevent use of the public rights of way from 7am to 2pm on days when the school was using the field,” a WLSL spokesperson said.

“They have not used the field this week, and weather conditions mean it was unlikely they were genuinely intending to bring pupils for PE today.

“When representatives of the school arrived at 8.30am there were, naturally, people using the public rights of way. They made it clear to the school that there was no intention to disrupt any lessons; they were simply exercising their right to walk the footpaths peacefully and left the field when they had finished doing so.

“The school apparently called the police to attend. The police will therefore have witnessed the school's operative ordering the gates to be locked preventing access to the public rights of way. In doing so we understand that one member of the public was locked inside the field and that for a period the school's operative refused to unlock a gate to let him out.

“We understand that the school's operative also declared that the gates would not be unlocked at 2pm in line with the school's previous commitment.

“WLSL is clear - and there are signs on the fence stating this - PE lessons (if they take place) should not be disturbed or interrupted. It is unfortunate that the school has chosen to construct its fence such that four public rights of way lie within it.

“Under section 137 of the Highways Act, it is an offence if a person in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a public right of way. We remind Cotham School that many other schools across the UK (and in Bristol) have public rights of way across their playing fields and do not treat members of the community in such a hostile and aggressive manner,” they added.