Hopes for a New Year resolution to six year dispute over Peterborough's Werrington Fields

A resolution to the six year dispute over the use of Werrington Fields in Peterborough could be achieved early next year.

Peterborough City Council is looking to hold a special meeting of the full council in 2025 to find a solution to the row between the Ken Stimpson Academy and nearby residents.

The Academy says it needs all the land for educational use and that it must be fenced off to ensure proper safeguarding of students.

But residents say the fields have been open to public use for the best part of four decades and their use is important to the wellbeing of many nearby householders.

Campaigners had hoped the meeting would take place at the first meeting of the full council on January 22.

But a council spokesperson said: “We don’t have a date confirmed yet for Werrington Fields.”

Tony Forster, campaigner with the Save Werrington Fields group, said: The sooner we can get this resolved now the better.

"The only reasonable solution is to agree on a compromise.

"We accept the land is school playing fields but it is also public open space.

"If the school won’t share, then it’s only fair to split it down the middle .

Mr Forster added: “I’m mystified at why this is taking so long to resolve.”

Following a meeting in October, the council advertised its intentions to grant a 125-year lease of land at Werrington Fields to Ken Stimpson Academy at Staniland Way with the public having until December 6 to make their views known.

The notice of intended disposal of open space land was published after the council’s cabinet decided to send the issue around the future of the fields to full council.