Coming to PROWG for a third time…

Why is the Public Rights of Way and Greens Committee about to consider whether to register Stoke Lodge as a Town or Village Green for a third time? Isn’t that unusual?

Well, yes it is unusual – but nothing about this process has ever been normal. The first TVG application involved a public inquiry; the subsequent Inspector’s report was considered at a PROWG meeting on 12 December 2016. The Inspector had recommended that the land should not be registered, on the basis that the Avon signs made use not ‘as of right’ during the first five years of the TVG1 period, up to 1996. But the Inspector’s report is only a recommendation – the decision has to be taken by the Committee itself.

At that meeting, the PROWG committee discussed the relevance of the Avon signs and the Winterburn case at length. They rejected the Inspector’s recommendation, giving as a reason: ‘Three members of the Committee considered that the facts in Winterburn v Bennett [2016] EWCA Civ 482 were not the same as the facts of this case… The small number of signs on such a large site was not sufficient to make the use of the land contentious.’

Cotham School challenged that decision by way of judicial review, and the Council defended the Committee’s decision to register the land. BCC argued that there were not enough signs, and that:

• Given that Cotham School took the lease after the [2011] TVG application had been made and that shared use was then being carried on, the school was aware of the position and potential implications [of registration as a town or village green].
• Registration would reflect what has been the position on the land for at least the twenty-year period prior to the application.
• It appears that the land has been used for a very long period for recreational purposes by the local community and the importance of the protection of recreational uses that arise from [TVG] registration should not be overlooked.

The High Court said that it was ‘not controversial’ to say that Stoke Lodge is very different to the car park in Winterburn, but that the Committee’s decision-making process and reasons had not been adequately recorded (the minutes did not explain why, having accepted his report, the Committee had departed from the Inspector’s findings).

That meant that the PROWG Committee had to reconsider the application in June 2018. At this meeting there was very little discussion about the issue of signs and no discussion of whether ongoing use was contentious. After discussing the financial and party political implications of the process to date, a vote was taken and the Committee split 50/50 on political lines. On a casting vote, the decision was made to accept the Inspector’s recommendation and reject the application.

An email from Ben Mosley (Head of the Executive Office) to Mike Jackson on 4 July 2018 provided the following briefing:

It’s important to say that this is not, and should not be, a party political matter. Members of the Committee are being asked to consider a legal test on the basis of the evidence before them. Matters about the protection of, and public access to, green space, are important to Councillors on all sides of the Chamber and from wards right across the city. That’s why Full Council passed a Golden Motion in September 2021 to protect Bristol’s green spaces. That Golden Motion included a statement that ‘The need to conserve the existing Green Belt, as well as retaining vital green spaces, remains a major priority for most people in our city.’

Full Council resolved to ‘work with local communities across Bristol to similarly make every effort to designate much loved green space in other parts of the city and noting that such protection for green space was proposed as part of the recent Bristol Local Plan Review.’

We all want to preserve our green space and our mature trees. We don’t want to see it buried under astroturf or tarmac, or dazzled under the glare of floodlights. We know that Cotham’s ambitions to develop and commercialise Stoke Lodge lie behind its objection to TVG status (click here to read more). PE lessons at Stoke Lodge are not under threat from a TVG, but this important open space is certainly under threat of future development by Cotham School.

We hope all Councillors on the PROWG Committee will, on the basis that the legal test for registration is fully met on the evidence, support us and decide to register Stoke Lodge as a TVG on 28 June – once and for all!