A Bristol school has won a long-run court dispute over the control of its playing fields. It is a dispute the judge weighing the case said has been hard fought and has created much local controversy.
The case is about the legal status of Stoke Lodge playing field in north west Bristol, which was registered as a town green following a legal case brought by a local resident in 2023.
Local secondary Cotham School has owned a long lease on the field since 2011 for use as school playing fields. The school has taken legal action to get the town green status revoked so that it can fence off some of the land and regulate local use. As long as it is registered as a town green, they have to allow general access.
“This is a case that has aroused a great deal of passion on each side” said HH Judge Paul Matthews in his judgement today.
“It really matters to the parties. Each side has tried its utmost to persuade the court that it is right. Each side has put in evidence and made arguments seeking to support a conclusion that, if it should not win, the consequences will be practically apocalyptic. Inevitably, one side (at least) will be disappointed by this judgment,” he said.
Locals say that if they lose the case, they will lose access to the land and the school says that if they lose the case they won’t be able to use the field as playing fields for security reasons, the judge said.
He stressed that his role wasn’t to rule on the merits of either of these outcomes, but to decide whether the land had been correctly granted town green status in 2023. And in his opinion, he said, it hadn’t.
Specifically, he found that at the time of registration in 2023 the land didn’t meet the criteria to be a town green. He agreed with all but one of the schools five grounds of claim, saying, among other things, that the land had long use as school playing fields and had signage telling potential trespassers to keep out.
He ordered that the register of town and village greens should be amended and Stoke Lodge fields should be removed.
Even so, he stated that this is unlikely to be the end of the matter. “I am under no illusion that the dispute with the parties will stop here.”
As for what happens next, the judge said that was “for other parties, not me.”
Cotham School – and – (1) Bristol City Council (2) Katharine Welham
Business and Property Courts in Bristol (HHJ Paul Matthews) 10 June 2025
