What do Cotham parents need to know?

We’ve spent the last few blog posts going through evidence that doesn’t strictly relate to the Town and Village Green application, but does shed light on what Stoke Lodge having TVG status would mean for Cotham and its students.

First of all, it’s really important to say that TVG status would not mean that Cotham would ‘lose’ its playing fields. There is an important principle in TVG case law known as ‘equivalence’ which means that the kinds of use that existed during the 20 year period on which TVG status is based, are protected in the same way on a TVG – that means school use, club use and informal recreation.

We’ve shown that Cotham signed up to shared use like this in its lease, and that community use was recognised in the lease in a number of ways that were (and are) financially advantageous to Cotham. The claim that ‘community use’ means hiring to sports clubs is simply untrue (click here). As the Council has said, given that Cotham took the lease after the TVG application had been made and that the ‘dual use’ was then being carried on, it was aware of the position and potential implications.

We’ve shown that Ofsted doesn’t require detached playing fields to be fenced for safeguarding purposes and that the risk assessment overstated the risks anyway (click here). We’ve shown that the Headteacher Jo Butler also accepts this (for example, in the application to redevelop the pavilion that was made in early 2017, after the Public Rights of Way and Greens Committee had taken the decision to register the land as a TVG – click here). We know that the PE staff would prefer to provide more teaching time by using the facilities on the school’s own site as much as possible (click here). We know that other schools use detached playing fields with open public access for PE – it’s not an uncommon thing – but as Jo Butler said at the end of her witness statement (click here):

And that seems to be the issue (click here for a reminder of the 2014 plans). TVG status would restrict Cotham’s ability to develop and commercialise Stoke Lodge. But they have no right to insist on doing that, on designated important open space. And any such development wouldn’t be based on educational priorities – they can hire existing facilities closer to school and get more lesson time and lower travel costs.

We love seeing the students and clubs enjoying sport at Stoke Lodge. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Our objection is to the fence and to future development – just as Cotham School always knew it would be. Sandra Fryer’s options paper said the current solution would be difficult to achieve because there was ‘no recognition of community presence’. The community deserves recognition, and recognition is written into Cotham’s lease. It can’t just grab the whole field because it happens to want it – what kind of example does that set for its students?

We didn’t want Cotham to spend vast amounts of money on lawyers instead of on great education, and over the last five years we have offered compromise solutions and talks to try to resolve the situation. But we are simply standing up for what’s right, and we’ll continue to do that, for however long it takes. We hope you will too.