Around a third of Werrington Fields to be fenced off, council leader says

Around a third of Werrington Fields will be fenced off, Peterborough City Council’s (PCC) leader says.

Leader Cllr Mohammed Farooq (Peterborough First, Hargate and Hempsted) said the decision has been made by the Four Cs Multi Academy Trust, which runs the Ken Stimpson Academy at the site.

The part of the fields designated as land for educational use was transferred to it in September last year when the school, which uses the fields for sports and outdoor activities, first became an academy, Cllr Farooq says.

As such, it is up to them whether to fence it off, he continues in a statement to press, and it will now submit a planning application alongside the council to change the permitted use of the field from educational land with open access to educational land with restricted public use.

This will also include a Community Use Agreement which will allow some level of access to the fields outside school hours.

The agreement will allow “year-round organised community sporting activities in a safe and controlled environment”, Cllr Farooq said.

He added that his administration has been “working frantically to get to the bottom of years of indecision” over the fields, after the school first indicated it wished to fence some of them off over safeguarding concerns in 2019.

Earlier this year, the council said it would fence off the entirety of the fields itself, but paused submission of a planning application to this end after calls to leave at least some of them available to the public.

Disagreement about whose decision erecting the fence was arose after the council unsuccessfully applied to the Secretary of State for Education to change the use of part of the fields to public use so another part could be fenced off for the school.

PCC initially said it would move forward with fencing off all of the fields as a result of this decision, but was later told by Secretary of State Gillian Keegan that it’s “entirely a matter for the council” as long as it remains educational land.

Cllr Farooq now says it's the council and the academy’s decision.

Mike Sandeman, CEO of the Four Cs, said: “In all schools, safeguarding remains the number one priority. Being able to offer the essential balance of learning environments requires appropriate risk management.

“As Ken Stimpson Academy is unable to safeguard the fields, the educational experiences of all students have been severely impacted and narrowed.”

Previously, the fields have been shared by the school and the local community.

This article has been amended to attribute the quotes to Cllr Farooq rather than a PCC spokesperson.