We are back in the Old Grammar School for Heritage Open Days with Coventry Family History Society and others on Saturday and Sunday, September 15-16. 12noon to 4pm each day. To make the event a success we need a team of volunteers. The duties will be onerous! Please contact the chairman with offers of help— an hour or two will really help.
September 2018
We also see the proposed removal of the canopy in front of the former BHS store as ruination to the well balanced cross-roads of the precincts. We acknowledge that the canopy was removed from Waterstones sometime ago, but the former BHS store elevation matches the M&S frontage perfectly. We ask the question: 'why change it?' These tinkering devices will not solve the problem of declining fortunes in our city centre. We applaud the series of pre-application meetings held last year by Litchfields Consultancy and understand from results that the public consider the need for rain cover to be important. Hardly surprising. Coventry City Council state: “.. this must be a top quality scheme..” We couldn’t agree more. “..it’s what local people and the Upper Precinct deserve. In fact this plan is very similar to the original Gibson plan..” An incorrect statement when our ground-breaking precinct respected across the world, would have important features like its sheltered pavements removed in favour of more retail space.
Never in our wildest dreams did we expect to see arcaded shopping that has kept shoppers out of the rain for more than 50 years, be taken away from Coventry’s Upper Precinct. An integral part of the widely acclaimed post-war city centre designed by Donald Gibson, it’s practical, a pleasing feature and part of Coventry's heritage. When members of Coventry Society were shown the plans by developers before Historic England listed the Upper Precinct, we were asked for our opinion. We expressed our concern over the lack of easy access to the balcony in the scheme. Getting retailers back onto the balcony level—first class. But footfall will be lamentably low once the ramp and escalator are both removed. Not that we object to the removal of the escalator. Coventry Society will be delighted to see it go. But in so doing a new footway to the balcony from We have yet to see plans for the public realm with restored Broadgate will be absolutely vital. greenery and water features, as mentioned in the local press.
Monday, September 10 at 7.30pm Shopfront Theatre, City Arcade There will also be a Special General Meeting at the start of the meeting (7.15pm) to amend the Constitution of the Society. There will also be a presentation of Life Membership to Ralph Butcher. Free for members, £2 for visitors
Pictured right: George Wagstaffe and left: his Naiad work of art in Palace Yard, its original home.
More news and views on our website: www.coventrysociety.org.uk
SUE Urban Design Guidance SPD – The plans out for consultation are called this provides best practice draft Supplementary Planning Documents examples and technical (known colloquially as SPDs). These guidance to support the documents provide technical detail and delivery of high quality guidance to support the adopted Local developments primarily Plan. These documents become important within the planned urban when contentious planning applications extensions at Eastern are considered. Green and Keresley. Subjects covered include health and Hot Food Takeaways SPD – well-being, traffic impact and benefits of provides supporting guidance buses, housing, takeaway food outlets, on how applications for hot trees and the air we breath. food takeaways will be These are the full details: assessed through the planning Health Impact Assessments SPD – process. this is the second and final Trees and Development Guidance consultation before the SPD – document is adopted. It Advises on how tree provides guidance on how to protection measures and assess the impacts of new assessments should be developments on matters of considered in support of health and well-being. planning applications, TPO Coventry Connected SPD – this is the applications and Conservation second and final consultation Area notices. before the document is Air Quality SPD – adopted. It provides guidance advises on how matters of air on how to model and assess quality will be considered as the impacts of development part of the planning process, on the local highway network focusing on mitigating the and maximise the benefits of impacts of development. Public Transport.
All these documents can be viewed on the Council’s website www.coventry.gov.uk/ localplan A number of consultation events are being held with the opportunity to speak to the Council Planners. These are: Monday 3rd September 2018; 3 pm – 5.45 pm: Cheylesmore Library Wednesday 5th September 2018: 4 pm – 6.45 pm: City Centre Library Thursday 6th September 2018: 2 pm – 5 pm: Allesley Park Library Tuesday 11th September 2018: 11am – 2 pm: Canley Library Wednesday 12th September 2018: 5 pm – 7pm: City Centre Library Thursday 13th September 2018: 3 pm – 5.45 pm: Canley Library Friday 14th September 2018: 2pm – 5 pm: Keresley Library Saturday 15th September 2018: 12 noon – 2 pm: Keresley Library Thursday 20th September 2018: 2 pm – 5 pm: Cheylesmore Library The consultation lasts until Friday, September 21.
We met with the owners of Elm Bank in Stoke Park, once the home of Siegfried Bettmann. Planning permission has now been applied for that will see the mansion converted into five one bedroom apartments and nine two bedroom apartments. The general layout of the site is pictured left. We are delighted to know that Elm Bank will now be saved.
Spotted in Broadgate last month—the Council’s tarmac lorry with a crew replacing dodgy paving slabs with the black stuff! We were promised that this practice would cease yet it goes on leaving behind a second rate visual impression of our street scene.
In the past months we have become most concerned for the future of the former nurse’s home on Stoney Stanton Road. The site is exposed to the possibility of vandalism and we have asked the Council to issue an urgent works notice to get them to repair and secure the building. We now understand that the site has been sold on to a new owner. But we shall continue to monitor progress and push to have this important heritage asset secured for future generations.
Contacts
Postal address: 77 Craven Street, Coventry CV5 8DT Chairman’s tel: 07814327614 Email: info @coventrysociety.org.uk If Twitter is your thing, you can follow us at https://twitter.com/#!/CovSoc We also have our own page on Facebook. You can also follow us there at http://www.facebook.com/CoventrySociety