What’s the story with TVG2 and 3?

If you thought the first TVG process had some twists and turns, well that was just the warm-up. A new TVG application was made in September 2018 (this is TVG2) on the basis that ‘as of right’ use was still ongoing. On 24 July 2018 Cotham School had removed the Avon County Council signs and put up its own signs renaming Stoke Lodge as Cotham School Playing Field (which as you can imagine did not go down at all well with anyone who cares about this historic parkland). However, locals never viewed these as being valid because of the community use clause in the lease, so the signs hadn’t achieved the school’s goal of ending ‘as of right’ use (and a few months later councillors on the Development Control committee agreed with us on that, with one saying he had “never known a school to go to war with a community like this”).

Cotham School argued that the TVG2 application should not be validated, but eventually (about 6 months later) it was. The school then said that it would argue that its July 2018 signs had ended ‘as of right’ use – so to avoid having to spend time and money on legal arguments about whether the signs were effective or not, a further TVG application was made on 22 July 2019 on the basis that ‘as of right’ use had ended less than a year before (this is the TVG3 application). In all other respects the applications are the same.

The school privately asked the Commons Registration Authority (BCC with its TVG hat on) not to validate the TVG3 application. Although Cotham had gone to some lengths to avoid having to make a planning application for its perimeter fence (remember that it told Mike Jackson and Gary Collins that having to go through the proper process would be ‘pivotal and devastating‘ so it should be excused from doing it). Now, however, Cotham argued that it should be treated as if it had made a planning application after all. If only they hadn’t pulled those strings!

But the TVG application was validated. The Commons Registration Authority appointed the same Inspector as for TVG1 to consider the applications. So now we’re back in the bit of the procedure set out in our last post. You can read the agreed Outline Procedure in more detail here.

We know that around this time, Cotham School was still trying every possible tactic to get rid of the TVG applications, including its Chair of Governors putting in a private call to her friend and ex-colleague at the Council, who was in charge of running the TVG process, and asking for the applications to be ‘kicked into the long grass’. This was in April 2020 – below is the email in which the school’s request was passed on to the Inspector.

After much to-ing and fro-ing and further submissions from the parties (and a year’s further delay), the Inspector decided in March 2021 that a public inquiry was not required, even though the agreed procedure says that this should happen. He also issued a report at that time setting out his conclusions on the applications – even though the parties had not yet even been asked to submit their evidence!

Obviously, that report couldn’t possibly stand. The Applicants objected, strongly – more money was spent on yet more submissions. Another whole year later, the Inspector issued Directions that the Applicants should submit their evidence by May 2022, and then in July 2022 he set out a timetable for all parties to submit their legal arguments and evidence. That happened over the final quarter of 2022 – although it’s worth pointing out that neither the School nor the Council submitted any evidence at all. Not one single sheet of A4. Here’s ours:

The final decision on the applications now rests with the Public Rights of Way and Greens Committee, which will meet on 28 June 2023 to consider the evidence. It’s the Committee’s job, finally, to consider our submissions and our evidence and to decide whether the legal test to register Stoke Lodge Playing Fields as a TVG has been met.

We’ve come a long, long way together…