Cov city centre (8 Viewers)

[Ashdown]

City Centre South will be the game changer. Coventry is in desperate need of a higher city centre population. With expensive parking and extremely expensive public transport, you cannot rely on people living in the suburbs to travel into town.

Putting such effort into students is great, but they don't spend 12 months in Coventry and are often willing to travel and explore wider regions.

If you have young professionals living in Coventry City centre, many may not drive and will use the bars/pubs/shops/amenities within a 15 minute walk. It will ensure Coventry is busy into the evening.

Unfortunately CCS will take an awful long time and things could quickly decline.

I'm surprised no one has eyed up land around Friargate for high rise apartments. If you lived there, you could be in an office in Birmingham within 25 minutes, or the centre of London in 55. People struggle to get into central London from the suburbs in that time.

Good post, we certainly need more people living right in the centre…..although you say, expensive public transport? We get a bus all the way up the M69 into town from Hinckley for £2. Surely you can do the same from the likes of Eastern Green or Binley Woods if you wanted to ?

 

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[djr8369]

More to do in Brum, yeah of course as it’s huge, but it’s also horrendously busy and teeming with arseholes. Sure, Nottingham is lively but also in all the wrong ways. City centre might be a bit quiet and drab but have you been to some of the Northern cities?

Of course, it can be improved but not sure it’s as bad as people like to make out.

 

[Nick]

City Centre South will be the game changer. Coventry is in desperate need of a higher city centre population. With expensive parking and extremely expensive public transport, you cannot rely on people living in the suburbs to travel into town.

Putting such effort into students is great, but they don't spend 12 months in Coventry and are often willing to travel and explore wider regions.

If you have young professionals living in Coventry City centre, many may not drive and will use the bars/pubs/shops/amenities within a 15 minute walk. It will ensure Coventry is busy into the evening.

Unfortunately CCS will take an awful long time and things could quickly decline.

I'm surprised no one has eyed up land around Friargate for high rise apartments. If you lived there, you could be in an office in Birmingham within 25 minutes, or the centre of London in 55. People struggle to get into central London from the suburbs in that time.

Realistically though, what is going to attract people to live in the city centre?

 

[pusbccfc]

Good post, we certainly need more people living right in the centre…..although you say, expensive public transport? We get a bus all the way up the M69 into town from Hinckley for £2. Surely you can do the same from the likes of Eastern Green or Binley Woods if you wanted to ?

It's not £2.90 to travel on buses in Coventry. That's an awful lot of money for a journey from say Canley to town.

You can get to Birmingham on the bus for the same price I believe.

 

[pusbccfc]

Realistically though, what is going to attract people to live in the city centre?

With it becoming more difficult to drive cars (whether you think it's right or wrong), people will end up living closer to amenities.

Without a car, towns and cities like Coventry become incredibly difficult to live in.

It comes hand in hand. Young people generally like living in busy areas but they need jobs. Coventry has two top universities but they can't keep hold of the people.

 

[David O'Day]

With it becoming more difficult to drive cars (whether you think it's right or wrong), people will end up living closer to amenities.

Without a car, towns and cities like Coventry become incredibly difficult to live in.

It comes hand in hand. Young people generally like living in busy areas but they need jobs. Coventry has two top universities but they can't keep hold of the people.

There's loads of work being put into new skilled jobs though, the WMG projects have been running for like a decade or so.

These jobs are there.

 

[Nick]

With it becoming more difficult to drive cars (whether you think it's right or wrong), people will end up living closer to amenities.

Without a car, towns and cities like Coventry become incredibly difficult to live in.

It comes hand in hand. Young people generally like living in busy areas but they need jobs. Coventry has two top universities but they can't keep hold of the people.

The thing is though, how many young professionals work in the city centre so do they need to work closely when they can't drive? The other is if they do drive and they have to live in the city centre and have a car and then drive out to somewhere like Torrington Ave, the big Binley business park, the stuff at Baginton etc.

When / if Frasers build their big base near Ansty then are people going to move to the city centre to commute out of the city centre to Ansty?

I can't see many thinking, "Oh, that fancy city centre apartment, I'm going to live there, but I'm going to have to get the bus out of the city centre".

I agree about being close to the train station if people work in London or Brum, though.

 

[pusbccfc]

There's loads of work being put into new skilled jobs though, the WMG projects have been running for like a decade or so.

These jobs are there.

There is but cities like Coventry struggle to hold onto the students. Only 15% retention rate which is one of the lowest in the UK. Even places like Stoke, Sunderland, Preston and Middlesbrough hold on to a lot more. Obviously a lot of that is likely down to the quality of the degrees being awarded at Warwick compared to worse universities.

Coventry also has the highest number of international students and that makes it more challenging for them to stay after graduating.

I don't think the city has ever truly capitalised on having two strong universities and a fantastic location.

 

[pusbccfc]

The thing is though, how many young professionals work in the city centre so do they need to work closely when they can't drive? The other is if they do drive and they have to live in the city centre and have a car and then drive out to somewhere like Torrington Ave, the big Binley business park, the stuff at Baginton etc.

When / if Frasers build their big base near Ansty then are people going to move to the city centre to commute out of the city centre to Ansty?

I can't see many thinking, "Oh, that fancy city centre apartment, I'm going to live there, but I'm going to have to get the bus out of the city centre".

I agree about being close to the train station if people work in London or Brum, though.

Absolutely correct, the city centre has and is losing companies to outer town locations. A good example is Coventry Building Society moving from town.

I personally think the council should be doing more to keep these companies in town. You lose relatively wealthy people creating footfall.

 

[wingy]

The thing is though, how many young professionals work in the city centre so do they need to work closely when they can't drive? The other is if they do drive and they have to live in the city centre and have a car and then drive out to somewhere like Torrington Ave, the big Binley business park, the stuff at Baginton etc.

When / if Frasers build their big base near Ansty then are people going to move to the city centre to commute out of the city centre to Ansty?

I can't see many thinking, "Oh, that fancy city centre apartment, I'm going to live there, but I'm going to have to get the bus out of the city centre".

I agree about being close to the train station if people work in London or Brum, though.

They're not really going to be the type to work there, or are they, does suggest it's a national marketing issue really s, then HS2 COMES along to complicate things, who'd be a developer.

 

[Gynnsthetonic]

I remember when Equity and Law was based in town, it bought a lot of footfall, it needs another business similar. I know they have Severn Trent in town but it needs more

 

[Gynnsthetonic]

What I don't like is you have the brilliant HMV on Hertford St, the brilliant Belgrade on Corporation St, the Odeon at the Skydome, you go places like Oxford and everything is on the same street, it's thriving with people in and out of the pubs restaurants with the amenities all together in the same area

 

[Nick]

They're not really going to be the type to work there, or are they, does suggest it's a national marketing issue really s, then HS2 COMES along to complicate things, who'd be a developer.

Which professional types are going to work in the city centre and want to live there too, though?

There's plenty of tech types at the various business parks dotted around but whenever I've been looking for jobs in IT / Tech there's very rarely any in the city centre.

 

[wingy]

Which professional types are going to work in the city centre and want to live there too, though?

There's plenty of tech types at the various business parks dotted around but whenever I've been looking for jobs in IT / Tech there's very rarely any in the city centre.

Ño I've got to be honest I was thinking of commuter's generally.

 

[pusbccfc]

Which professional types are going to work in the city centre and want to live there too, though?

There's plenty of tech types at the various business parks dotted around but whenever I've been looking for jobs in IT / Tech there's very rarely any in the city centre.

Young graduates wanting to rent? Only if there's city centre jobs though.

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

City Centre South will be the game changer. Coventry is in desperate need of a higher city centre population. With expensive parking and extremely expensive public transport, you cannot rely on people living in the suburbs to travel into town.

Putting such effort into students is great, but they don't spend 12 months in Coventry and are often willing to travel and explore wider regions.

If you have young professionals living in Coventry City centre, many may not drive and will use the bars/pubs/shops/amenities within a 15 minute walk. It will ensure Coventry is busy into the evening.

Unfortunately CCS will take an awful long time and things could quickly decline.

I'm surprised no one has eyed up land around Friargate for high rise apartments. If you lived there, you could be in an office in Birmingham within 25 minutes, or the centre of London in 55. People struggle to get into central London from the suburbs in that time.

I'd love you to be right but we've had stuff like this before that have ended up having little impact.

It would be tricky to convince professionals to live in the centre if their work isn't there. They won't come because the things they want aren't in the city centre, but those things won't come until the people live there. Can't win.

When the Friargate plan came out I actually replied to the consultation saying it was too focused on office space and should have more residential, which is always in short supply, and would give very easy access to London and Birmingham for professionals, altering the demographics and enticing those amenities to the city. Got a slightly smarmy response saying I was wrong but turns out even my forecasts were optimistic.

This council has a thing of getting fixated on one aspect in particular - Jerde etc was so hugely focused on retail at a time everyone knew retail outlets were on the decline.

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

Frankly we should be doing that to 90% of retail parks. It’s a joke half this stuff isn’t in Town. But then council rent demands in city centre are a joke.

Agree. we need housing and we're a compact city so don't need all these out of town retail parks. I get the argument when many were made in the 90s etc but the conditions are much different now.

Have read a thing were it showed that if the rents are cheap businesses lose confidence and often you just ended up attracting betting shops, charity shops and fast food outlets.

One thing that did make me think how inept we are is attracting IKEA, a shop really only suited to large retail parks with lots of parking, to come to a city with numerous out of town retail parks, and put them in the city centre! And not only that but attached to one of the busiest sections of the RR. Madness. Meanwhile we still have retail parks with the likes of TK Maxx, Boots and Card Factory in them.

 

[Gynnsthetonic]

Som

Agree. we need housing and we're a compact city so don't need all these out of town retail parks. I get the argument when many were made in the 90s etc but the conditions are much different now.

Have read a thing were it showed that if the rents are cheap businesses lose confidence and often you just ended up attracting betting shops, charity shops and fast food outlets.

One thing that did make me think how inept we are is attracting IKEA, a shop really only suited to large retail parks with lots of parking, to come to a city with numerous out of town retail parks, and put them in the city centre! And not only that but attached to one of the busiest sections of the RR. Madness. Meanwhile we still have retail parks with the likes of TK Maxx, Boots and Card Factory in them.

Agree. we need housing and we're a compact city so don't need all these out of town retail parks. I get the argument when many were made in the 90s etc but the conditions are much different now.

Have read a thing were it showed that if the rents are cheap businesses lose confidence and often you just ended up attracting betting shops, charity shops and fast food outlets.

One thing that did make me think how inept we are is attracting IKEA, a shop really only suited to large retail parks with lots of parking, to come to a city with numerous out of town retail parks, and put them in the city centre! And not only that but attached to one of the busiest sections of the RR. Madness. Meanwhile we still have retail parks with the likes of TK Maxx, Boots and Card Factory in them.

Some are too close to the City Centre, Alvis being one of them, more suited for a Football Stadium than a retail park, a lot of the big retailers at Alvis and Central 6 have closed and now the food shops are all moving in, Aldi, Lidl, Iceland, Poundland, Greggs. There's no Currys, Samsung, Apple shops in town as well, with all the students here these are essentials surely.

 

[chiefdave]

What I don't like is you have the brilliant HMV on Hertford St, the brilliant Belgrade on Corporation St, the Odeon at the Skydome, you go places like Oxford and everything is on the same street, it's thriving with people in and out of the pubs restaurants with the amenities all together in the same area

Things aren't actually that far apart but the layout is shit, there's no flow. If you're at the Skydome or the Belgrade you're pretty much going there and then out of town again. You don't walk out of those places, look up and think I'll just have a wander and a look around.

 

[ccfctommy]

They need to flatten Central Six, move those shops into the city centre, and build apartments attractive to young professionals on the site.

Nah. people go to these for the free parking and the fact that it isn't in town. No one wants to pay the parking charges and mess around with the apps etc.

 

[chiefdave]

Nah. people go to these for the free parking and the fact that it isn't in town. No one wants to pay the parking charges and mess around with the apps etc.

Isn't that the point. If you've got a shopping centre on the edge of town with free parking people will go there and not the city centre.

Although a lot of our out of town shopping centres seem pretty shit as well compared to other cities.

 

[pusbccfc]

I'd love them to flatten Central Six. A ridiculous waste of land.

Ideally it would have been a 33,000 seater stadium