Werrington Fields: academy trust takes legal action over council’s latest decision
The academy trust has now applied to the High Court for a judicial review over the long-running playing fields dispute
There remains no end in sight for a long-running dispute between residents and a school over some playing fields in Werrington as legal action is lodged.
Peterborough city councillors agreed on March 13th to lease a section of Werrington Fields to the Ken Stimpson Academy, albeit a smaller section than the school’s academy trust said it would accept.
The Four Cs Academy Trust, which runs the school, proposed fencing off 77 per cent of the fields, which would have seen a strip of land around the fencing left for the public.
However, the amendment voted through by councillors at an extraordinary full council meeting reduced this to 63.5 per cent (Area C1), with the fence to be built in line with the school building.
The academy trust has now applied to the High Court for a judicial review over the council’s latest decision, claiming the authority’s decision to split the land named Area C into C1 and C2 was ‘unlawful’. The judicial review continues a complex saga that has been ongoing for several years.
The fields have been used by both the public and the school for decades, but the school now wishes to fence off the area due to concerns over safeguarding risks to pupils.
All parties are in dispute over the use of the land, with the trust claiming it to be educational while residents say it is mixed use open space.
The trust has stated that it now wants to use the entire area of the fields labelled Area C for its lessons and school activities, and has called for the council’s decision made on March 13th to be quashed.
It was previously agreed that the academy trust and council would split the cost of the fencing, thought to be around £80,000.
But the trust has now said that it “does not accept” it must pay a contribution towards the fencing, arguing that it is the council’s responsibility as the freeholder.
It has also argued that the council should pay the trust’s costs for any court proceedings.
A residents campaign group named Save Werrington Fields is also involved in the legal proceedings as an interested party and has been raising funds to pay for its legal costs.
A spokesperson for the Save Werrington Fields group said the judicial review application showed a “level of contempt” for the community and councillors, and said they hoped the council would “stand up to the bullying tactics” of the academy trust.
One of the group’s members Nyree Ambarchian said: “From our point of view it just seems like a real smack in the face for local democracy.”
She added: “Everybody’s got to a place where they agree, and the academy trust are the ones delaying the process.”
A spokesperson for Peterborough City Council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Following the decision of Full Council in March, we remain committed to reaching a conclusion on this matter as quickly as possible in the best interests of everyone involved.”
In a letter written by the city council to the academy trust’s solicitor, the council argues that the academy’s claims are “no more than generalised assertions”.
It adds that the council does not agree to paying the trust’s costs of threatened legal proceedings, does not agree to lease the entirety of Area C to the trust and does not agree that it would bear the entire cost of erecting the fences.
The Four Cs Academy Trust was approached for comment.