Council tells major faculty to pay £7.50 an hour to make use of park

A school is locked in a heated dispute with a council after it was told it must start paying to use a park it has had free access to for nearly 50 years.

Rickmansworth Park Junior, Mixed and Infant School, which doesn’t have its own playing field, uses the public land for lessons and activities.

But its curriculum have been thrown into doubt after Three Rivers District Council told it to start paying £7.90 per hour.

Sources said the cost to the school would run to ‘thousands every year’ which it ‘simply can’t afford’.

Anger boiled over in a letter from exasperated headteacher Jane Linch to parents in which she accused the local authority of making it ‘increasingly difficult’ for the school to use the park for the past three years and called on parents to ‘make Three Rivers listen’.

Louise Felgate, 43, who set up the petition and whose daughter, Frankie, eight, goes to the school

A school is locked in a heated dispute with a council after it was told it must start paying to use a park (pictured) it has had free access to for nearly 50 years

A concerned mother then started a petition against the charges on the same day which has been signed by nearly 1,500 people in the space of a week.

But the local authority blasted back with a terse response online in which it complained the school had ‘publicly, unfairly and, with misinformation, attacked the council’.

In her letter last week, Miss Linch said: ‘Three Rivers informed us that they will no longer cut the grass until the school signs a hire agreement and pays £7.90 each time we set foot on the field. This arrangement limits us to restricted hours of use.’

Describing how it is ‘essential that we continue to have unrestricted access to this green space’, she continued: ‘As a compromise, we have offered to contribute to the grass cutting costs but this option has been rejected.

‘Three Rivers insist that they will only agree to a per hour hire agreement to be renewed annually.’

Parents attacked the ‘shameful’ position adopted by the council on the petition, with one saying: ‘All three of my daughters attend the school and they would be heartbroken knowing that the most fun sports events that take place every year on the field cannot happen because of this decision. This is absolutely appalling.’

Another wrote: ‘Ludicrous idea from the council. It’s not a concert or event with tickets that the school uses the area for. Educational needs come before profit.’

Louise Felgate, 43, who set up the petition and whose daughter, Frankie, eight, goes to the school, told MailOnline: ‘We’re such a small school and we don’t have the funds. We try to raise money as much as we can to allow the children to do extra activities over the year like plays and things like buying books for the library.

‘If we’re having to pay extra to use a public field it will just push us too much. We can’t do it.’

She added: ‘We have three playgrounds but no field space. Even the concrete playground is slightly tiered.

‘It’s used once a year for sports day and on a weekly basis they’re up there for learning like geography or science and wellbeing lessons doing yoga or meditation. There’s also an after-school club.

‘The park isn’t huge – it’s probably equal to two or three football pitches – but it’s not a hugely used space and we’ve never had any complaints [from the public] about using it.’

Children at the school use the field once a year for sports day as well as for yoga and meditation

Mother Louise Felgate said: ‘If we’re having to pay extra to use a public field it will just push us too much. We can’t do it’

Rickmansworth Park Junior, Mixed and Infant School, which doesn’t have its own playing field, uses the public land for lessons and activities

Locals have also taken to social media to criticise the council, with one saying: ‘Pay to play. Disgraceful.’

The school, which was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted in its last inspection and has around 200 pupils aged five to 11, has used Rickmansworth Park since 1977 without formal permission from the council, which owns the land.

In its 457-word public statement, the council said it had introduced a biodiversity initiative in 2022 to allow the grass to grow longer in some areas but it agreed to cut it shorter in a specific location for the school’s benefit, as well as painting lines for sports day.

It added: ‘As a responsible landowner, the council has a formal hire of grounds policy that is used where individuals, groups, organisations (including charities, schools and others), as well as private businesses wish to have dedicated access to and use of its publicly funded and maintained grounds.

‘It is under this policy that the specific arrangements requested by the school, being different from the normal day-to-day management of the site by the council, have been agreed… This agreement includes a nominal charge in contribution to the additional maintenance.

The council informed the school that they would no longer cut the grass until the school signs a hire agreement

Headteacher Miss Linch said: ‘As a compromise, we have offered to contribute to the grass cutting costs but this option has been rejected’

‘It is therefore surprising that, having willingly entered into this agreement, the school has chosen to publicly, unfairly and, with misinformation, attack the council.

‘Three Rivers District Council is not the local education authority but it remains open and willing to help the school. However, it cannot subsidise its sporting activities.’

Council leader Stephen Giles-Medhurst said: ‘We continue to be keen, just as we have over the past year, to find a practical and positive resolution to the matter.’

The council is meeting with Hertfordshire County Council next week to discuss the matter.