Field row School hopes there'll be no barrier now to fence's return

THE headteacher of a Bristol secondary school has said she hopes to fence off the school’s playing fields once again, after the council removed the land from its register of Town and Village Greens.

- Tristan CORK

Jo Butler, the headteacher at Cotham School said she hoped that a recent High Court judgement in the school’s favour over the status of the land meant an end to the ‘repeated and systematic’ incidents of vandalism, which have largely destroyed or removed a fence that was erected in 2019.

In a message to parents, Ms Butler said she hoped that PE teachers and students would be able to get back to the Stoke Lodge playing fields in the near future, following the High Court ruling in early June.

Last week, Bristol City Council quietly removed the land from its official register of Town and Village Greens around Bristol, with a letter informing both Cotham School, which has a 125-year lease on the land from the city council, and the ‘We Love Stoke Lodge’ campaign group of local residents.