Councillors urged to approve 125 year lease of Werrington Fields to Peterborough's Ken Stimpson Academy

Members of Peterborough City Council’s ruling Cabinet are to be urged to grant a 125 year lease to the Ken Stimpson Academy for the use of a large area of disputed open area of land for sports lessons.

If approved, the recommendation will see an area the size of eight football pitches at Werrington Fields fenced off by the Academy in a move that will also prevent public access to the land that residents say they have enjoyed for decades.

It is one of three options council officers are putting to the Cabinet, which meets on October 15, in a bid to resolve a six year dispute between residents and the academy over the use of the so-called Area C at Werrington Fields.

But officers are recommending that councillors only approve one option, called Option 1, which is to support the same committee’s decision in July that the 125 years lease for Area C should be given to the Academy, that the area should be fenced off and a Community Use Agreement be put in place to allow residents use of the land when not required by the secondary school.

That decision was the subject of a review by a scrutiny committee in August which agreed the matter should be referred to full council, via cabinet, for a compromise solution to be found.

In a report to next week’s Cabinet officers state: “Option1 remains the preferred option as it aligns with the Council’s statutory obligations and enables Area C to be returned to educational use.

“The Council has a statutory duty to take all reasonable steps to facilitate the conversion of the school into an Academy.

"This includes granting the lease of the school site to the Academy Trust.

"The Department for Education expects the Council to grant a lease of all the school land to the Academy Trust and the Council is already a year behind schedule in doing so.”

Option 2 is to refer the decision to full council but officers state that the scrutiny committee has ‘not given any valid reason under the Council’s Constitution why this matter should be referred to Full Council.’

Option 3 is to re-open negotiations to lease and fence a smaller area of land for the Academy Trust.

But officers state that it is ‘highly unlikely that any new proposal or compromise can be found to resolve the matter in a way that is acceptable to everyone’ and that further delays mean that the council is in breach of its statutory duty to ‘take all reasonable steps to facilitate the conversion of the school into an Academy, which includes granting a lease of the school site to the Academy Trust.’

Campaigners with Save Werrington Fields claim that the amount of land that it is proposed to be enclosed is too much.

They say the land has been accessible to the public for 40 years and is a vital community asset and only a much smaller area – the size of about 2.5 football pitches – should be fenced off.

But the council and the school say fencing off the equivalent of eight football pitches will safeguard students.