Stoke Lodge Residents left with £85,000 legal bill after court loss

RESIDENTS who have engaged in a 13-year campaign with a Bristol school over access to its playing fields have been hit with a legal bill of more than £85,000 after they lost a court case to keep the fields open.

- Tristan CORK

The We Love Stoke Lodge group called Cotham School 'vindictive' for convincing a judge he should make them pay 90 per cent of the school's legal bill.

The judge in the case, which was decided last month, ruled that city council taxpayers should only pay ten per cent of the legal bills, because the city council was 'at best a junior partner' in the court hearing

That has left Katharine Welham, who joined the legal action on behalf of We Love Stoke Lodge alongside the council, facing an £85,203 legal bill which will have to be paid within ten days, while the council itself has been ordered to pay £9,467.

The costs ruling follows a comprehensive victory for Cotham School in its challenge to the council's decision to give the Stoke Lodge playing fields 'Town or Village Green' status, which ended last month.

The judge in the case has now ruled on how much each of the three parties should pay. His Honour Judge Matthews said he decided that Cotham School should take on 40 per cent of its own legal costs, and that the other 60 per cent should be divided between the two parties Katharine Welham and Bristol City Council - who were defending the case.

After ruling that Stoke Lodge was not eligible to be made a Town Green, he also accepted a Cotham School application that when the two defendants are made to pay a share of Cotham School's costs, it should not be split 50-50, but instead should be split 90-10.