Council defies school's wishes to fence off park
Peterborough City Council has agreed to lease a section of Werrington Fields to the Ken Stimpson Academy for use as self-contained playing fields.
But it was a smaller section than the Four Cs Academy, which runs the school, said it would accept, leaving the authority open to a possible legal battle.
The council also said it would pay up to half of the cost of erecting the fencing the school said was necessary to safeguard its pupils, estimated to be around £40,000.
Councillors voted for a suggestion put forward by Liberal Democrat group leader Christian Hogg stating that the council should grant an 125-year lease to 4Cs encompassing the school buildings and around two-thirds of the fields next to them, leaving the rest open for public access.
He divided this area – called Area C on the council's map of the fields – into two, labelling the part due to be leased to the school Area C1.
The academy's lawyers told the council that "Area C must retain its education use designation and it cannot be divided".
It said it would compromise with local people by allowing them access around the perimeter of these fields, but would not accept anything less.
The local authority's own legal officer warned councillors at a meeting this week that proceeding with Hogg's plan would leave the authority at "significant risk of a successful legal challenge".
But councillors said cutting off public access could also leave it open to litigation from local campaigners who have claimed the land is designated as having a dual use, and that ultimately they must vote with their consciences.
The council, which is the freehold owner of the land, has consistently said it wanted to reach a compromise.
It previously applied to the Department for Education to change the designation of the land to help it divide it, but this was rejected.
Negotiations between council, the school, academy trust and central government have been going on since 2019, when the school first raised the need for a fence.
A final decision on the issue has been delayed several times. It even had an airing in Parliament after being raised during Prime Minister's Questions last year.
The Save Werrington Fields campaign group also said it had compromised, having initially said it wanted to keep the entirety of the fields for open access, but later said it would accept a reduction in the size of the fenced area.
The council was also presented with almost 400 pages of objections to the larger parcel of land being fenced off.
The Labour council leader Dennis Jones said all of Area C should be offered to the school.
The reason for this proposal was to "not put this council at risk of a legal challenge of the school," he said, "which would be north of a hundred thousand pounds if we lose, when we've already spent well over a hundred thousand pounds and taken six years to get to this point".
He said the cash-strapped council would be taking a potentially expensive gamble over a 13.5% difference in land use and that the academy could seek a judicial review.
Mr Hogg said his suggestion gave the school "a fair amount of space that is sufficient to meet their needs while recognising the wishes of the wider community of Werrington".
"I don't pretend it gives either party what they are hoping for as a solution, but hopefully it is one that both parties can live with," he said.
He added that a legal challenge would not necessarily be successful as he was not proposing to change the educational use designation of the part of Area C left open to the public.
He said the school could apply for a lease on that part of the land if their needs changed in future.
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