We're furious after CAMERAS were put up in our park – we want them taken down now | The Sun
ANGRY residents have hit back after secret spy cameras were installed in a public park.
Campaigners say devices hidden in a junction box near the park gateway are illegally monitoring people without their knowledge.
Fuming locals have accused Cotham School of installing the cameras in Stoke Lodge Park, Bristol – but the school says they are for security along a fence.
A campaign group called We Love Stoke Lodge was set up to oppose the plans and gathered a petition from 4,500 people calling on the council to block the fence.
Helen Powell, 52, from the group, said: "The school believes that they have a right to ride rough-shod over the law.
"This is obviously a matter of serious concern for all users of the playing fields whose right to respect for private and family life has been compromised without their knowledge."
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The simmering tensions are part of an 11-year battle to have the park protected by Town or Village Green status.
The Grade II listed school building and 26 acres of parkland in the leafy part of Bristol was bought by the city council in 1947.
For more than 60 years the parkland was a place of refuge for generations of people young and old.
But all that changed in August 2011 when the land was leased for 125 years to an academy which took over running Cotham School.
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Three years ago, the school set about fencing off a large part of the park depriving nearby residents of public rights of way across the land.
Cotham School claims the cameras -near Stoke Lodge House and a children’s play park – protect the perimeter fence.
But campaigners argue this is not the case as they point at the field and slam the need for 24/7 surveillance as "not a proportionate or justified response".
They also want the school to prove the cameras are legal under the Regulation of Investigatory Power Act (RIPA) 2000 which authorises an organisation to carry out surveillance on the public.
Residents say Cotham School’s Data Protection Impact Assessment for CCTV states the ‘school will not use covert cameras’ and ‘all camera locations will be clearly visible’.
And they want the cameras down as soon as the application for the Town or Village green is granted.
'KEEP PEOPLE OFF THE LAND'
Retired businessman David Mayer, 73, was one of the first people to take up the fight to have the park a changed to a Town or Village Green.
He said: “The school has been working hard to try to keep people off the land so that it will not be given Town or Village Green status.
“We believe that they are doing this because they have in mind some future development of the playing field.”
Another campaigner, company director Emma Burgess, 49, said: "The cameras are recording users of the field including young children and families, teenagers socialising, sports club members and others."
Mechanic Rob Wilton, 44, says the cameras are filming "precious family moments without telling us" as he plays with daughters Lois, seven, and Elsie aged five.
While Chris Harries, 70, whose house overlooks the park is a regular financial backer to the campaign group.
He said: “They ought to be aware that when an Englishman’s dander is up he is a dangerous animal.”
NHS doctor Jo Quilter, 52, and her husband Bruce, 53, are regular visitors to the park with their 12-year-old daughter Ella and dog Bruno.
Jo said: “This is one of the few places near where we live we can just relax and breath in the fresh air."
They ought to be aware that when an Englishman’s dander is up he is a dangerous animal
It’s estimated the school has spent more than £500,000 on legal fees in battling the campaigners – money the campaigners claim could have been better spent on children’s education.
Cotham School admitted installing the covert cameras in January this year and said it did so after meeting the police to discuss ongoing incidents of vandalism at Stoke Lodge.
In a statement the school said there were more than 25 separate reports of criminal damage of the school’s property at Stoke Lodge between July 2018 and December 2021.
A spokesperson added: “This disappointingly takes vital school funds away from the education of our students to cover the cost of the necessary repair to ensure that our students have an offsite sports provision which is able to be secured and remains fit for purpose."
Cotham School said it installed the cameras in January 2022 and then updated its own Data Protection Impact Assessment for CCTV to ‘remove any sections relating to not using covert CCTV, to allow the use of these cameras’.
This move was backed by the school’s governing body, the statement said, who ‘would like to see the ongoing criminal damage and waste of public funds be brought to a conclusion’.
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“In January 2022, we met with representatives of Avon and Somerset police following an influx of incidents and were advised to consider the use of covert CCTV monitoring to try and catch the perpetrators of these crimes.
“Avon and Somerset Police were highly supportive that we try to draw these ongoing issues to a close and suggested the use of either wildlife cameras or covert CCTV monitoring of the crime hotspots.”
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