New footpaths approved in latest Stoke Lodge Playing Fields discussions

Four new public footpaths are to be recorded at Stoke Lodge Playing Fields in what is a major development in a long-running and highly contested case.

On Wednesday, the Public Rights of Way and Greens Committee voted unanimously in favour of recording the paths across the playing fields used by Cotham School.

99 public statements of support were submitted to the meeting, with the only statement against coming from Cotham School themselves.

Helen Powell, a member of the We Love Stoke Lodge campaign group, says the Council’s latest decision is “a really big piece of the puzzle.”

“These public rights of way are incredibly important because they underline to Cotham that they are sort of on a hiding to nothing.”

“Now they need to stop and just accept that the land needs to be shared with the community, which is in fact what they signed up to in their lease.”

The fields, which are owned by Bristol City Council and leased to the school, were controversially fenced off in 2019 due to safeguarding concerns.

Stoke Lodge was then registered as a Town Village Green in August 2023, a decision that Cotham School will challenge in court in January.

In a press release published on Thursday, Cotham School said it was “deeply disappointed” by the Council’s decision to record the new paths.

The school say it will continue to “robustly challenge the existence of the claimed routes,” highlighting that student access to the school playing fields is “vital to their health and well-being.”

However, Helen Powell says that locals are not opposed to Cotham School, which is located 3 miles away, continuing to use the land for sport lessons.

“Nobody in this community is objecting to Cotham coming and doing PE on the field. We are not preventing them, and we’d be happy to see them back.”

Cotham School have declined to provide further comments.