Council set to make decision on land at Werrington Fields in Peterborough

Peterborough City Council will make a decision tonight (January 22) over a piece of land which has caused division between residents and a secondary school.

A full council meeting will be held tonight where councillors are recommended to agree that all the land designated for educational use at Ken Stimpson Academy, including the main school site and the school playing fields, should be leased to The Four Cs Academy Trust under a new 125-year deal.

In July last year, the city council’s cabinet decided to lease all the land at Werrington Fields to the school and contribute financially to fencing the land.

However, that decision was called in following protests from residents, who were concerned about the loss of public access to the land, and it was later decided that the matter should be brought to full council for consideration.

The land was used as school playing fields until around 2021 due to documented safeguarding concerns related to the risks of contact between pupils and members of the public, who continue to use the land both during and outside of school hours.

Headteacher Damian Whales previously told the residents seeking to keep the fields as shared use that a compromise was off the table as the land is solely for educational use.

The Department for Education (DfE) expects the city council to lease school land to the academy.

Ahead of the full council meeting next week, Councillor Katy Cole, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: “We have listened to the residents and the academy trust on a number of occasions in relation to this issue, and both arguments are compelling.

“We are faced with an impossible situation where we cannot please everyone, as much as we would like to.

“It is for this reason, I suspect, that previous administrations have ‘kicked the can down the road’ for as long as they have.

“What is paramount for me is that this matter has been allowed to rumble on for much too long and it is the students of the academy who continue to be most affected. We must also take into account government guidance.”