Coventry city centre (33 Viewers)

[Hobo]

To be fair at least your username is synonymous with Coventry. Was it meant as a tribute?

Yet in recent years homeless applications have been higher in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull than Coventry.....so you just keep peddling your misinformation.

 

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[I_Saw_Shaw_Score]

I wander around the city centre on my lunch break and quite clearly a large portion of genuine homeless but there is a number who I'd query the ones that have better shoes than me, look pretty clean shaven and ask in a more 'menacing' manner for change than those genuinely begging.

 

[Nick]

I wander around the city centre on my lunch break and quite clearly a large portion of genuine homeless but there is a number who I'd query the ones that have better shoes than me, look pretty clean shaven and ask in a more 'menacing' manner for change than those genuinely begging.

They are usually the ones lurking by the swimming baths pay machines, can tell it's a job to them.

 

[I_Saw_Shaw_Score]

They are usually the ones lurking by the swimming baths pay machines, can tell it's a job to them.

Dotted all over a lot by various cash machine a few sat on the floor by that falafel shop at the back of the Godiva shop (near to where the homeless person/people that sleep on the double mattress are)

 

[Astute]

They are usually the ones lurking by the swimming baths pay machines, can tell it's a job to them.

What I do is offer to get them a cuppa or something. If they genuinely seem happy I give them some money. If it is money they are after they get nothing.

 

[Nick]

One of them by the swimming baths once tried to talk to my daughter to get me to give them some money, it made her feel uncomfortable. I can't imagine what it would be like on a winter's night in the dark being a woman on their own with some bloke sat there watching her take her purse out, with another by the other machine and the rest of their crew sat in a car not too far away like they do.

 

[I_Saw_Shaw_Score]

One of them by the swimming baths once tried to talk to my daughter to get me to give them some money, it made her feel uncomfortable. I can't imagine what it would be like on a winter's night in the dark being a woman on their own with some bloke sat there watching her take her purse out, with another by the other machine and the rest of their crew sat in a car not too far away like they do.

On a side note I noticed some building work on the car park opposite the baths next to the bingo place what they building there?

 

[Nick]

On a side note I noticed some building work on the car park opposite the baths next to the bingo place what they building there?

I think it's student flats?

 

[hill83]

On a side note I noticed some building work on the car park opposite the baths next to the bingo place what they building there?

Disclaimer. I have no problem with it.

I don't know what they are building there but it'll be student accommodation. £10 bet.

 

[Nick]

Disclaimer. I have no problem with it.

I don't know what they are building there but it'll be student accommodation. £10 bet.

£50m complex for 1,000 students. Changing one set of tax dodging beggars for another*


*That's a joke before students get angry.

 

[Otis]

I have no problem with student accommodation, but do fear it has been overloaded in their favour and should in fact be more of a balanced mix.

Glad the Co-op building is going to be upmarket appartments and the CT office a boutique hotel.

 

[clint van damme]

Yet in recent years homeless applications have been higher in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull than Coventry.....so you just keep peddling your misinformation.

was in Brighton at the start of the week. Greta place to visit and a town with loads going for it but the amount of homeless people was unbelievable. It's a national problem and I doubt many citys are exempt. and homeless charities are predicting a 75% rise in the next decade.

 

[Brylowes]

was in Brighton at the start of the week. Greta place to visit and a town with loads going for it but the amount of homeless people was unbelievable. It's a national problem and I doubt many citys are exempt. and homeless charities are predicting a 75% rise in the next decade.

It's called Austerity and we best get used to it 'because it's going nowhere, and will only get
More severe, disgraceful in a Country such as this.

 

[covroy]

It's called Austerity and we best get used to it 'because it's going nowhere, and will only get
More severe, disgraceful in a Country such as this.

agree...............fuck the tories

 

[letsallsingtogether]

Yes, it's endemic. I've seen people passed out on the streets a few times. People screaming. Spice causes people to vomit as well so you often see big piles of sick around in the middle of the day.

Presume you stayed near Piccadilly? The walk from Piccadilly station to the Piccadilly Gardens is dreadful, full of spice boys and girls.

Yes grim.
My lad is in Uni in Manchester the other week he was working in Las iguanas and the restaurant 2 doors down had a drive by shooting.
He recons you hear shooting on a regular basis.
There are 5 times the amount of homeless on the streets it is a national epidemic and a scandal that people are allowed to live that way.
Funny how those hat have money are the ones who stay clear of these people and do nothing but slag them off.
It could happen to any of us.

 

[letsallsingtogether]

Yep. 100 times better. Out of the 3 altogether (Natural History, V&A and the Science) the Science one is by far the worst I would say.

Supposed to be moving into the old BHS shop Nationwide are moving into he old JJB sports shop next to the old Leofric hotel entrance.

 

[Otis]

Supposed to be moving into the old BHS shop Nationwide are moving into he old JJB sports shop next to the old Leofric hotel entrance.

From a good source, or did you get it from the CT?

 

[Astute]

Yes grim.
My lad is in Uni in Manchester the other week he was working in Las iguanas and the restaurant 2 doors down had a drive by shooting.
He recons you hear shooting on a regular basis.
There are 5 times the amount of homeless on the streets it is a national epidemic and a scandal that people are allowed to live that way.
Funny how those hat have money are the ones who stay clear of these people and do nothing but slag them off.
It could happen to any of us.

Shootings happen frequently in Liverpool and Manchester. That is why earlier I said check what they are like. Yes they have nice shopping areas. But I would never have my family live there.

And on the homeless....some people think that we should allow anyone in who wants to come and live here. They don't want us to catch up with the homeless people that we already have. It is thought they don't know how bad the problem is.

And you can't just blame the Tories. Yhey are as bad as each other.

 

[Hobo]

The city centres biggest problem is it's never made any attempt at all to attract high end buyers into the city.

If anything it's actively discouraged them.

If you look at the top high street stores by demographic choice there are none in covebtry. If you look at the bottom end (primary, smiths, pound whatever) they are all represented.

Centres like Nottingham and Leicester have benefited by attracting a big John Lewis store in the centre. Instead we got primark a deterrent for many.

Not only that but even medium level stores are severely downgraded here such as Next and M and S.

Most of the centre is a decaying mess. All the way from that square by the photo shop round to the place where the ABC cinema was is a wasteland of pawn brokers, betting shops and empty stores.

Pret e mange? No thanks we will have about 4 greggs instead.

It's a wasteland. The only city I've seen like it was Wolverhampton. Like Coventry it was full of vagrants and strange looking people with ill fitting track suits and trainers wandering around in a zombie like trance. Many with the standard Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

Unlike Coventry they seem to be doing something about it. A £50 million redevelopment in the centre. We spend £100 million on friarsgate which improves the appearance but not really has a commercial benefit and a pool complex which will deliver no extra benefit at all

It's annoying as the council in its wisdom is ruining most of the green belt to build high end estates. None of these people will even consider the centre as an option so what's the point.

It's disjointed thinking and I suspect too late now to do a thing about it. In the end more stores will close never to be replaced and it really will be a ghost town.

Ultimately you can offer incentives but John Lewis and Primark decide where they set up. Having been a senior Manager in retailing and set up shops nation wide (my transient life style is where my nickname comes from Grendel). The wife and I love Nottingham, she went to University there, but the beggars and their bottles of white lightning can be like flies.

56 and retired Grendel how about you?

 

[Brylowes]

Funny how those hat have money are the ones who stay clear of these people and do nothing but slag them off.
It could happen to any of us.

It could, the safety net that used to catch society's most vulnerable has been removed Resulting in ever
more homelessness, the cuts to mental health funding and for people With physical disabilities swells
the numbers further.
But people (usually the well off) will blame them and say they're responsible for their own hopelessness,
And the world doesn't owe them a living, they actually feel aggrieved to have to witness people living in
These conditions, but have little thought or sympathy for those having to do so.

By my reckoning, if we keep moving in the same direction and at the same pace, we should witness the
Introduction of the Workhouse and children up chimneys in about 20 odd years.

 

[Terry Gibson's perm]

However bad it is it can never get as bad as Bedworth

 

[Deleted member 5849]

The only real decent things are the Herbert to go to when they have different things on and the Motor Museum but again not something you would need to go weekly for.

We don't make enough of the good bits either. Round the Cathedral could work beautifully if they focussed on it. Instead, it's out of the way, a piecemeal afterthought. Transport Museum has a decent entrance to it, but they've got rid of the clock and let the rest of it decay into becoming a little bleak and windswept, whilst around there should be bustling and thriving.

 

[Deleted member 5849]

The Old Grammar School is nice

Shame they restored it, but forgot to stick in the bidget enough to actually open it.

 

[Otis]

Shame they restored it, but forgot to stick in the bidget enough to actually open it.

It has been open a few times.

I have been in there 3 times in the last couple of months, but it's not open enough for sure.

 

[Deleted member 5849]

It has been open a few times.

I have been in there 3 times in the last couple of months, but it's not open enough for sure.

But it's only open for spcial events, that's the point.

They restored it, and didn't bother to think of how to fund a use for it.

Bloody idiotic.

 

[Otis]

But it's only open for spcial events, that's the point.

They restored it, and didn't bother to think of how to fund a use for it.

Bloody idiotic.

Yeah, am agreeing with you.

I think it would be perfect for little concerts, you know, something like a string quartet, or a folk singer, or a choir etc.

 

[Brylowes]

On a lighter note,
Only 3 years after plunging the world into a deep recession (depression) Resulting in Governments around
the world having to put their entire country in hock to Prop up the disgusting, disgraced and inept Banking system............Huge Bonus schemes for those responsible were reintroduced HOORAY !!!!

 

[Otis]

On a lighter note,
Only 3 years after plunging the world into a deep recession (depression) Resulting in Governments around
the world having to put their entire country in hock to Prop up the disgusting, disgraced and inept Banking system............Huge Bonus schemes for those responsible were reintroduced HOORAY !!!!

Time for the party poppers and vol au vents!!!

Whoo hoooo!!!!!

 

[Deleted member 5849]

Yeah, am agreeing with you.

I think it would be perfect for little concerts, you know, something like a string quartet, or a folk singer, or a choir etc.

They're bloody useless with the heritage venues (although by no means alone in that!). Take Whitefriars, open for Heritage Open Days, but only if booking. To begin with... you couldn't book, because the link to the website they gave didn't work.

Now it works and... it's fully booked.

So there's obviously a demand...

But will anybody give the cash to allow that demand to be met?!?

 

[Deleted member 5849]

My wife works there.

She might be interested in this too then

Wilko says nearly 4000 jobs at risk of redundancy | This is Money

 

[Hobo]

They're bloody useless with the heritage venues (although by no means alone in that!). Take Whitefriars, open for Heritage Open Days, but only if booking. To begin with... you couldn't book, because the link to the website they gave didn't work.

Now it works and... it's fully booked.

So there's obviously a demand...

But will anybody give the cash to allow that demand to be met?!?

Coventry has a fantastic heritage through the ages but we are stuck in Godiva and the Blitz.

Plus George Elliot, Philip Larkin and then E M Forster lived in Earlsdon in his later years. Heritage coming out our ears....did I mention the Lunt Fort?

 

[Deleted member 5849]

Coventry has a fantastic heritage through the ages but we are stuck in Godiva and the Blitz

We don't even do that properly, either!

Frustrating that it *could* all be linked together, and they *could* make so much more of it all... although tbf the problem isn't really the local council, even, it's national government deciding they can do without the cash.

So then it's always triage and firefighting rather than actually trying to improve things.

Grammar school frustrates me though as it's typical of so many projects nowadays, that they see the short term of getting the initial project done... but forget it costs to keep it going afterwards, too.

 

[hill83]

St. Mary's Guild Hall is a cracking building too. It's where I got married in June.

2 minute walk from the flying standard too so I managed to sink a couple beforehand.

 

[Deleted member 5849]

It's where I got married in June.

Congrats (I think!)

 

[Hobo]

We don't even do that properly, either!

Frustrating that it *could* all be linked together, and they *could* make so much more of it all... although tbf the problem isn't really the local council, even, it's national government deciding they can do without the cash.

So then it's always triage and firefighting rather than actually trying to improve things.

Grammar school frustrates me though as it's typical of so many projects nowadays, that they see the short term of getting the initial project done... but forget it costs to keep it going afterwards, too.

Grammar schools? Academies are the biggest load of sucking off funds without delivering blocks...Super heads are corporate di!ck