Coventry's Universities

I was part of a group who were recently given a guided tour of the Engineering and Computing building and was greatly impressed by the thought and planning which has gone into its design. It has systems for conserving and reusing rainwater collected from the roof, automatic ventilation and recirculating systems, photovoltaic cells for energy conversion, wood chip boilers, ambient temperature sensors in every area and a central computer system which is learning the usage habits of students of electric lights in classrooms to economise on power use. There are two lecture theatres, one of which can be divided into two with full soundproofing and a unified system for computers which means that any student or lecturer in any part of the building can have instant access to the same software no matter where they are working. The building is even built on the most advantageous aspect for gaining the greatest benefit from solar energy. It is an amazing place. The other thread mixed in with this one is a concern over the increasing amount of property acquired by the University for student use and accommodation and this is becoming a worrying trend. I read today that there are now sales outlets in the city centre which are advertised as being for students' use only, despite being private businesses (so far unverified). This appears to be a form of unfair discrimination and needs to be closely examined by council officials. There shouldn't be any no-go areas for the general public in terms of retail or catering outlets. It will be interesting to see if this policy is maintained during the long summer vacations. It is not in the interests of the city to assign so much of its centre to students that it becomes one vast university campus, otherwise it will be dead space for a large proportion of the year when they are on vacation.

There is a venue in the city centre that is students only - at least it was a while back. It was bar up above the restaurant on Gosford Street (it used to be the brilliant Aqua Lebanese restaurant, but its now some sort of student eatery called 'quids inn'). Too much of one thing is bad for anywhere. What used to be areas of employment are now becoming area of student flats, and not only does this deny the city employment space, it probably attracts the sorts of businesses that most of us aren't interested in.

I don't mind, AD, so much the Library as it has bricks and looks like a castle to me anyway, it's those metal buildings I don't like but that's my opinion.

I must admit I like most of the newer buildings at the University, at least some imagination is being shown with appearance and construction, although it remains to be seen how they will age. As reported recently the Council House had many detractors when it was first built. There is always a slightly odd relationship between a University and a city with locals often feeling pushed out by students especially as the numbers of students increase. As regards the increase in student accommodation don't forget that in the 1970's The Lanchester (as it was then) bought up large amounts of bedsits to convert into student accommodation especially in places like Westminster Road.

The division is getting worse; a whole chunk of the city centre, including the Cathedral Quarter, is becoming an inner-city University Campus. When I was an undergraduate, it wasn't like this - the Odeon was used by everyone, and the "Main Hall" had gigs on that were open to all. It didn't feel as isolated at it is now. This is typical of Coventry though - the Uni is an important facility in the city centre, but it should be integrated into the city better, not turned into a vast campus in the city centre. The streets it occupies should be part of the city's urban grid. However, Coventry does not really have an urban grid or city centre street 'pattern' anymore so the Uni is just filling in the dead space that no one else wants because of the poor planning. Imagine how many people would be drawn to the city centre if Warwick Arts Centre was there? It would generate footfall and boost other businesses. Coventry is going to have to start bringing things into the city centre to replace the hole left by the reduction of retail... The way forward is more leisure facilities.

I don't go or use the town and haven't for years, it's not the town I knew nor the people, a lot of locals feel the same not all but a lot, their intention is for it to be like Oxford and Cambridge, a Uni city within a city, Flapdoodle, but I do read some forums where some have said there is a terrible atmosphere in the town pubs now with the students taking over. I also believe we will have parliament here too before long as they have before and as they won't save London this time renewing the barriers on the Thames, haven't we got Blair's son here already. When people feel they no longer belong in their own town, they might as well and do move out the town altogether. I have a feeling they will eventually use the UK like Hong Kong. What they don't take into account is the environment as it does have a knock on effect with more and more people building more cars, more pollution, high buildings effect the weather, slabbing causes floods, pollution in the air through exhaust fumes which they now have proven not only causes lung cancer also heart attacks so nature might come back and bite them on their ....!!!