School spent thousands building fence, court told

A court in Bristol has heard how a school spent hundreds of thousands of pounds building a fence to keep members of the public away from pupils playing sport.

Cotham School erected the fence at Stoke Lodge, on leased land, in 2019, after concern about dog mess and other safeguarding issues.

This upset nearby residents, who likened it to the "Berlin Wall". After a campaign in 2023, the area was registered as a Village Green, and the fence was taken down.

Cotham School is challenging the decision to remove the fence in court, saying the site is not safe for pupils to use.

At the first day of a High Court hearing, sitting at Bristol Civil and Family Justice Centre, to resolve the dispute between the school, campaigners and Bristol City Council, it was put to the school's headteacher, Jo Butler, that they "had spent hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money to achieve the wholly unnecessary aim of trying to fence the land".

Ms Butler replied that the school did have a lease on the land.

"It is educational land, and that in the same way we are expected to protect school buildings, we will protect our playing fields."

The court also heard that neither Ofsted, the Department for Education, or Bristol City Council considered fencing necessary, and that up and down the country, many schools played sport on shared public fields.

The court also heard from the school's director of finance and resources, Allison Crossland.

She was asked about the cost of challenging the decision in the courts and whether this was a proper use of school money.

The school had initially allocated £80,000 for this case.

"More than that and the school might risk collapse," she said.

Ms Crossland said the school had then been able to secure a special insurance policy, to protect themselves.

When asked how much this insurance policy had cost, she said she did not know.

The case is expected to last until the end of the week, and a final decision is not expected for several months.

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