{"id":894491,"date":"2026-04-14T23:55:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T23:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/894491\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T23:55:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T23:55:23","slug":"school-fence-row-slammed-as-badly-handled-since-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/894491\/","title":{"rendered":"School fence row slammed as ‘badly handled since the beginning’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol Live readers have reacted strongly to Bristol City Council’s handling of the Cotham School Stoke Lodge playing fields dispute and locked gate controversy\"Damage<\/p>\n

Damage to the fence around Cotham School’s Stoke Lodge playing fields, photographed on the morning of Saturday, January 24, 2026(Image: Bristol Post submitted)<\/p>\n

Bristol Live readers expressed considerable frustration with Bristol City Council’s management of school playing fields, public rights of way and protracted planning decisions<\/a>. Many described the process as bewildering and potentially hazardous.<\/p>\n

Councillors have rejected proposals to compel a Bristol school to unlock gates within a contentious fence surrounding a disputed playing field. In the most recent development of the protracted Stoke Lodge dispute, councillors were cautioned that pursuing enforcement action could trigger an expensive legal battle.<\/p>\n

Last October, the public rights of way and greens committee at Bristol City Council<\/a> chose not to force Cotham School to maintain open footpaths across Stoke Lodge playing fields. While the committee voted to formally designate these footpaths as public rights of way, that doesn’t mark the conclusion of the lengthy legal process. A public inquiry is scheduled for this October regarding them.<\/p>\n

Significantly, last year the committee were informed that gates within the fence remained open to the public when the school wasn’t utilising the fields. However, the gates are now permanently locked throughout term time, though they were opened last week for the Easter school holidays.<\/p>\n

For several committee members, this development was sufficient to reconsider enforcement action. Xercesblue12 commented: “In this case, it is baffling why the BCC committee voted to open these fields as a public right of way if it was not prepared to make good on this decision.”<\/p>\n

Regarding Brislington<\/a> Meadows, they continued: “The planning committee’s deferral of a decision could prompt the developer to appeal the delay as ‘unnecessary’ to the Planning Inspectorate which might result in the council being fined for the developer’s costs. My understanding is that BCC only has a case to delay if there was a legal flaw in the way the original decision to approve planning permission was made.”<\/p>\n

Commenters were forthright about the situation as a whole. With Xercesblue12 saying: “So, BCC seems to be inviting expensive legal actions on, at least, a couple of fronts. In this case, it is baffling why the BCC committee voted to open these fields as a public right-of-way if it was not prepared to make good on that decision. With respect to Brislington Meadows, the planning committee’s deferral of a decision could prompt the developer to appeal the delay as ‘unnecessary’ to the Planning Inspectorate, which might result in the council being fined for the developer’s costs. My understanding is that BCC only has a case to delay if there was a legal flaw in the way the original decision to approve planning permission was made.”<\/p>\n

Bmw adds: “We had a field out in Wickwar the farmer was growing in this field but there was a footpath, rights of way from corner to corner of this field. The farmer asked if the walkers could walk around the perimeter a bit longer, but to a person who loves walking so much, it would make no difference. At the start of the growing season, the path was barely 2 feet wide; by the end, it was about 8 feet wide because the walkers did not stay on it. ‘It was their right’ Even when the field was harvested, walkers made a point of using the path, dogs as well. These are the same type of people trying to access the field just to prove a point. Get wise, you will not win!”<\/p>\n

Ron Young believes: “This entire matter has been badly handled since the beginning and that seems like a lifetime ago.”<\/p>\n

Bluemorpho11 comments: “The case is more about whether the BCC committee concerned jumped the gun in declaring an ‘official’ right of way, before the public inquiry by the Planning Inspectorate investigates whether there is a public right of way.”<\/p>\n

Martymoo writes: “School near the Downs, should use the Downs. It works for amateur football.”<\/p>\n

Bristolian18 says: “Claims that come from Cotham never stand up to scrutiny. ‘Ongoing continuing removal of fence panels’ is just a lie, plus local police said at a recent community meeting that this supposed incident of pupils being filmed wasn’t anything criminal – the member of the public explained to Cotham’s staff member, who turned up after the youths had run off, that it had looked like they were damaging the fence. The police also confirmed that there is no ongoing.”<\/p>\n

Are you for or against the fence? Comment below or HERE<\/a> to join in the conversation.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Live readers have reacted strongly to Bristol City Council’s handling of the Cotham School Stoke Lodge playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8818],"tags":[9420,381,3893,748,10006,14486,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":["post-894491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bristol","tag-brislington","tag-bristol","tag-bristol-city-council","tag-britain","tag-commenting-content","tag-cotham","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116405766930847556","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}