Facts (not alternative ones)

Today some documents were disclosed under FOI, including a letter from Cotham School to BCC Chief Exec Stephen Peacock, seeking a meeting to discuss the school’s strategy to ‘resolve this situation’ (i.e. to overturn the PROWG Committee’s decision to register Stoke Lodge as a village green). Here’s the letter:

This letter was sent before the section 14 claim was launched, and we know that it resulted in a meeting in early December. But in particular let’s look at some alternative facts vs actual facts.

The letter comes from Cotham’s Chair of Governors, who is Sandra Fryer. You can see in the underlined text that she says that if the land is a village green, then ‘the spirit and purpose of the lease is not capable of being met’. That’s quite a statement considering that the lease was signed on 31 August 2011 when a TVG application was already under way. In fact, in the words of Ms Fryer’s own evidence to the TVG inquiry in 2016, the lease ‘was taken on the basis that the TVG application was in place’.

Ms Fryer also gave evidence that ‘in the past the use of the playing fields had been satisfactory from the School’s point of view’. That’s right – Cotham had no problem with sharing use of the land with the community. She’s not the only person who thought that. Here’s a letter from the first TVG applicant, David Mayer, to the previous Head of Cotham School, Malcolm Willis, just after academy conversion in 2011:

See how David refers to ongoing community use ‘as of right’, and ‘the ongoing use of the Parkland by both your academy and the Community, in the harmonious way currently enjoyed by both interested parties’?

Here is Dr Willis’ response: ‘Thank you for your letter concerning Stoke Lodge and your express wish to maintain our close and harmonious relationship. We completely echo your sentiments…’.

So – Cotham took the lease on the basis that its rights are subject to the community being able to use the land as it always had, and knowing that a TVG application was in place, and it was perfectly happy with that ongoing situation. So now it cannot (with any honesty) say that when a TVG is granted, the ‘spirit and purpose of the lease is not capable of being met’. It’s just not true. That language is designed to make BCC believe that the school has a problem (that doesn’t really exist) and that BCC is responsible for fixing that problem (which it isn’t). But the senior BCC officers at the meeting apparently fell for it. And as for ‘safe and useable playing fields’ – we’ve been over this time and time again. Many schools use public access detached playing fields. Many schools have no dedicated playing fields at all.

As we know, the school’s strategy didn’t pan out. That’s because we raised the issue of the constitution – it’s unlawful for the Executive to interfere in decisions made by a regulatory committee – and it’s because the PROWG Committee stood resolutely for the constitution and for the defence of its decision to register Stoke Lodge. But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen these tactics from Cotham School, and we absolutely reject the school’s use of false claims like these in its ongoing campaign against the community.