The school fields involved in years of legal battles

Councillors in Peterborough will be asked to end a long running legal battle this week over the fencing of land around a secondary school's playing fields.

Known locally as 'Werrington Fields', the green area has been shared between the local community and the Ken Stimpson Academy (formerly the Ken Stimpson Community College) since 1982.

However in 2019 the school said it was not safe for their students to use the field when it was open to the public.

The council was asked to fence off the fields. However local residents objected to the plans, saying the fields were for shared use.

Years of intricate debate and disagreements have followed. With the council and school claiming the land is designated for education use and a residents group saying it was always intended for shared use.

In 2020 the City Council initially agreed to pay for a fence around the land. That was later challenged.

In 2023 the school was converted to an academy and became part of The Four C's Academy Trust.

Papers being presented to the cabinet on Tuesday say as part of the conversion negotiations the council agreed a compromise of 60% for the school and 40% for public recreation. However the papers go on to say 'later that year the Department for Education refused the Council's application for consent to appropriate the area in question as public open space.'

In July 2024 the cabinet agreed to let the school lease all the land, but that decision went through a process known as 'calling in.' At that meeting the school's headteacher and a councillor who was a former student described incidents that had caused safeguarding concerns due to the shared use.

Further council meetings took place to try and resolve the dispute. However in June 2025 a judicial review was issued against the council by the Four C's Trust.

Since then the council says it has been in negotiations with the Trust and is now bringing forward a proposal to the cabinet on Tuesday. This now includes a strip of land around the edge of the fields which will be retained for public use.

The proposal also includes a community use agreement. It is understood this will be in the form of a 'bookable' sports facilities through a leisure provider.

A group of residents formed the 'Save Werrington Fields' group and have been calling on the council and the school to reach a compromise.

"This space is a much loved, beautiful green area that's about to be taken away from local people" says local resident Nyree Ambarchian

"It's never been educational land, it was always intended to be shared use with the public. For years we've called on the Academy Trust and Peterborough City Council to take a smaller area. They've refused to compromise. They're taking all the space and plan to charge us to use it. It was always David and Goliath, it's just really, really sad. "

The cabinet has been recommended to approve the proposals, with a warning that not doing so could result in legal costs of between £100k and £150k for the council.

The Four Cs Trust has been approached for comment.

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