A MAN has won a legal battle against a council’s decision which he reckoned restricted access to one of Scotland’s most historic football grounds.
Gregory Brown believed Glasgow City Council acted unlawfully after granting planning permission to the Jimmy Johnstone Charitable Trust allowing it to erect a fence at the city’s Cathkin Park.
The ground was once the home of the second Hampden Park.
Queens Park and the now defunct Third Lanark played their home matches at the south side venue.
The charity – set up following the former Celtic legend’s death -used Cathkin Park to teach children how to play football. Locals also used the park for recreation purposes.
In May 2023, the trust applied to Glasgow City Council for planning permission to construct a new three metre high boundary fence at the park to prevent “unauthorised use and non-permitted activities” and to stop “unnecessary footfall on the grass”.
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The proposed fence was to be three metres high around the perimeter of the fence with a five metre ‘high ball stop netting’ at each side.
Access to the existing pitch was to be controlled by a lockable gate which would be controlled by the trust.
This prompted Mr Brown to raise a judicial review against the trust.
He started a crowdfunder to raise funds for the expensive action against the council.
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His objections came as people who lived in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow used the park for many years.
He believed that the council’s decision wasn’t in keeping with the Land Reform (Scotland) 2003 Act – otherwise known as right to roam legislation.
He said that law gave the council the obligation to maintain and uphold public access rights to Cathkin Park.
Mr Brown believed the council’s decision to allow the erection of the fence didn’t take this obligation into account.
His lawyers addressed Court of Session judge Lord Sandison earlier this year, asking him to quash the planning decision and for an order stating that the council’s decision was unlawful.
On Tuesday, in a written judgement published at the court, Lord Sandison upheld the decision.
He wrote: “I shall sustain the petitioner’s second plea-in-law and his third such plea insofar as it relates to the 2003 Act, repel his remaining pleas along with those of the respondent, find and declare that the decision complained of was predicated on a material error of law, and reduce it accordingly.”
Cathkin Park once had a capacity of 50,000 but became a park after Third Lanark went out of business in the 1960s.
The space was taken over in 2022 by the Jimmy Johnstone Academy, a charity founded in memory of the late Celtic player.
But locals in Mount Florida objected to the move to erect a fence.
On his crowdfunding website, Mr Brown wrote: “I firmly believe that football should be for everyone, but this is the last grass pitch on public land in the south-east of Glasgow free for anyone to use.”
Locals rallied to the cause, holding fundraising events and protests to draw attention to the park – some held an “emergency picnic” and family fun day to protest against the fence.
The pitch was also used by the Cathkin Blazes football team which was set up in 2021 for women and non-binary people to play the game and socialise following the isolation of the pandemic.
Lucy Eskell, a member of the team told the Herald newspaper: “As a member of Cathkin Blazes football team, I think it’s really important to have pitches accessible to the community and free of charge.
“The south side of Glasgow needs more accessible pitches, not less, so that outdoor sports can be truly inclusive and enjoyed by all.”
In the court action, lawyers for Glasgow City Council claimed the local authority acted lawfully.
They argued that right to roam legislation gave the local authority an exemption which entitled them to approve the planning application.
The lawyers argued that section seven of the legislation didn’t provide access rights to areas which had been developed as a sports or a playing field.
Lord Sandison rejected the argument.
He wrote: “While I accept that there is no public right of access to the football pitch while it is actually being used as such (preferring the narrower available construction of the exemption in section 7(7)(a) as more consistent with the overall purpose of the 2003 Act to preserve and enhance public access to land in general), I do not consider that a pitch used for amateur football is sufficiently analogous to a golf green, cricket square or lawn tennis court to qualify for the further protection of section 7(7)(b).
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“That subsection plainly directs itself to playing areas where a very high degree of groundsmanship is required for the purposes of the sport in question, public access to which could reasonably be expected to cause damage to such an extent as to render the area unplayable.
“An amateur football pitch, although certainly qualifying as an area on which grass is grown and prepared for a particular recreational purpose, is in my view more analogous to the fairway of a golf course or the outfield of a cricket ground – areas which clearly are not protected by section 7(7)(b).”
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