Football pitch fence plan declared unlawful

The football academy wanted to build a fence around the park in the southside of Glasgow

A man has won a legal battle against a council's decision to build a fence around a historic football pitch in a Glasgow park.

Gregory Brown believed Glasgow City Council acted unlawfully after granting planning permission to a football academy allowing it to erect a 3m (9.8ft) fence at the city’s Cathkin Park.

The Jimmy Johnstone Academy, which has used the pitch since 2009, said the fence would help ensure the safety of children who trained with them and was needed after vandalism.

The plan faced multiple objections from the local community, but permission was granted in December 2023.

Cathkin Park is well known for its footballing history. It contains the site of the second Hampden Park, previously home to the football clubs Queen's Park and Third Lanark.

The old football stands are still visible around the current football pitch.

In May 2023, the Jimmy Johnstone Academy applied to the council for planning permission to build a new boundary fence at the park to prevent “unauthorised use and non-permitted activities” and to stop “unnecessary footfall on the grass”.

The charity, set up following the former Celtic legend’s death, uses Cathkin Park to teach children how to play football.

It has two youth teams and hosts about 7,500 young footballers each year.

Access to the existing pitch would 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 and he launched a crowdfunder to raise money for the action against the council.

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.”

A petition was set up in March calling for the council to revoke the planning permission and received over 2,000 signatures.

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.

Mount Florida Community Council backed efforts to get planning permission revoked.

The terraces at Cathkin Park remain in place more than 50 years after Third Lanark went out of business

Mr Brown said that the council’s decision was not 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.

His lawyers asked judge Lord Sandison to quash the planning decision and for an order stating that the council’s decision was unlawful.

Lord Sandison upheld his request in a written judgment published at the court.

However 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.

But Lord Sandison rejected their argument.

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 by the Jimmy Johnstone Academy in 2022.

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.