Friargate development

On the clip is the building in the distance belonging to the railway and in the 1980's was the Horizon recording studio, it was demolished to make way for Central 6 shopping centre

The white faced building on the right was, I think, Parkside Garage.

U sure Deano? In that case the building on the corner would be the start of Stoneleigh Terrace?

I do wonder just where all these people who will be working at Friargate will park their cars? And failing any decent parking provision, will this mean yet another Park-and-Ride being filled with business-permit-holders? On top of that, who (business-wise) will be attracted to a complex serviced by trains that are to have a depleted service once HS2 gets under way?

This development will include parking, and the station may get more local links due to HS2 which is potentially better as the city would be better linked to the surrounding towns and may become a hub for warwickshire. This plan was mooted long before Friargate.

The start of the clip was at this point here

The parking allocation for the proposed job creation is woefully inadequate. I'm sure the train station would be mentioned but I think the numbers using it would be lower than envisaged. If train services took up most of the strain it would mean a lot of those wages would end up being spent outside of the city economy. However, I doubt that many jobs and offices will be filled, and some of that office space will eventually be reclassified for MSCP's. There is also the hope it could lead to an increased demand for city centre residences, and more space in the development will be used for this. It's just a matter of wait and see, but I can definitely see parts of the plan being revisited over the coming years

I did find it a little strange this evening driving the wrong way around the former 'island' to get into the station to pick up my wife from Warwick Road! New temporary access entrance. Mind you it doesn't help that they've closed the 20 min car park outside the front of the station at the same time!

You're absolutely right Deano I can see the Warwick Road Goods / Horizon building with its distinctive rectangular chimneys which means I'm pretty much sure - at the risk of crossing threads (!) that must be the corner / start of the Stoneleigh Terrace row right where Warwick Road / Queens Road and St Patricks Road all met!

If the new proposed 'boulevard' recreates an entrance in to the city like this it'll be worth it!

Hi all During the initial civil engineering work during the construction of that section of the ring road, I watched a complete section of tramway point-work being cut up & removed. There was quite a detailed article along with pictures in the Telegraph at the time.

Coventry's obsessed with cars, yet there are bigger and busier cities - and some smaller ones - that have central business districts without a car parking space for everyone. Due to its central location, Friargate will be accessible by public transport (Far more so than the city's out of town business parks) to people living in the city and, if they put the trains on, to people in the surrounding towns. Those who want to live in their remote villages or in far flung places - that's their problem. It's about time people in this country stopped expecting everything to revolve around the car and their needs as drivers. I would love to work in the city centre. I'd be able to walk the kids to school and then get a bus or even walk to work (Weather permitting.) As it is, I have to drive across the whole city to get to an out of town business park (And this includes the school run.) The bus service to these remote parks is not good enough and never will be as these places are not hubs, and most of the buses only run during certain times. (I did use the bus once, and it took over an hour!)

That may be so, but we aren't necessarily talking about all these workers being "local" people who can simply hop on a bus. In attracting an influx of business from outside the area (as was the case with Severn Trent when they moved into their new building by the ring-road) employees will want somewhere to park as I would imagine very few will be serviced by bus or train - which is exactly why the Park-and-Ride at the Memorial park was always full and blocked the Kenilworth Road come 5:00pm every night.

Well ST relocated from Birmingham, so I imagine most of their staff are or were from outside the city - and judging by the procession of people heading that way in the mornings, the trains are well used. Over time I'd expect staff to tend to be more local as people leave and local residents apply for the new jobs. New companies moving to FG or local companies relocating may not be the same as ST. Companies relocating from a distance will either have to recruit locally or Improved local transport is vital for FG, IMHO. What is the alternative? Huge multi storey car parks and a vast dual carriageway cutting through South Coventry to people to them? Or we just continue to build business parks on the outskirts of the city where there is 't enough car parking and no transport?