{"id":41393,"date":"2024-11-29T13:15:21","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T13:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/?p=41393"},"modified":"2024-12-13T14:33:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T14:33:04","slug":"new-footpaths-approved-in-latest-stoke-lodge-playing-fields-discussions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/2024\/11\/29\/new-footpaths-approved-in-latest-stoke-lodge-playing-fields-discussions\/","title":{"rendered":"New footpaths approved in latest Stoke Lodge Playing Fields discussions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls poster=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Feature-Picture-1.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Stoke-Lodge-News-Video.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">99 public statements of support were submitted to the meeting, with the only statement against coming from Cotham School themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Field-Picture.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-41492\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Field-Picture.jpg 700w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Field-Picture-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Field-Picture-640x366.jpg 640w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Field-Picture-681x389.jpg 681w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Stoke Lodge Playing Fields<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Helen Powell, a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/welovestokelodge.blog\/\">We Love Stoke Lodge<\/a> campaign group, says the Council\u2019s latest decision is &#8220;a really big piece of the puzzle.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;These public rights of way are incredibly important because they underline to Cotham that they are sort of on a hiding to nothing.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<center><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Public Rights of Way and Greens Committee has voted UNANIMOUSLY to record four new public rights of way at Stoke Lodge Playing Fields! <br>Members of the community celebrating \u2b07\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ddj36Logmg\">pic.twitter.com\/Ddj36Logmg<\/a><\/p>&mdash; We \ud83d\udc9a Stoke Lodge \ud83c\udf43\ud83d\udc9a\ud83c\udf43 (@WlStoke_Lodge) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WlStoke_Lodge\/status\/1861787163265786352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 27, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fields, which are owned by Bristol City Council and leased to the school, were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-bristol-47073863\">controversially fenced off<\/a> in 2019 due to safeguarding concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stoke Lodge was then registered as a Town Village Green in August 2023, a decision that Cotham School will challenge in court in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stokelodgeplayingfields.org.uk\/_files\/ugd\/954575_e1eec85efcc14c9f97d268e364c7297e.pdf\">press release<\/a> published on Thursday, Cotham School said it was &#8220;deeply disappointed&#8221; by the Council\u2019s decision to record the new paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The school say it will continue to &#8220;robustly challenge the existence of the claimed routes,&#8221; highlighting that student access to the school playing fields is &#8220;vital to their health and well-being.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Red-Sign.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-41491\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Red-Sign.jpg 700w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Red-Sign-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Red-Sign-640x366.jpg 640w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Red-Sign-681x389.jpg 681w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A remaining section of the fence placed by Cotham School.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Nobody in this community is objecting to Cotham coming and doing PE on the field. We are not preventing them, and we\u2019d be happy to see them back.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cotham School have declined to provide further comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":321,"featured_media":41493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1621],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41393"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41528,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41393\/revisions\/41528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}