After wholesale demolition for the new Sky Blue Way roundabout the entrance to historic Far Gosford Street was found wanting. Now we are delighted to see proposals for a new 120-bed hotel on this landmark site. Refurbishment work has already started to transform the run-down thoroughfare into a centre of creative industry. A conservation project at the former Hand and Heart pub, and adjoining 14th century buildings is underway and soon other derelict sites will be brought back into use.   more

Preventing Coventry’s city centre becoming a ghost town is one of the great challenges we face during these coming months. Our city centre needs some clear actions now. The Society is pleased to see a shop unit in the City Arcade put into temporary use as an art workshop. But with the huge number of empty premises (some 60 at the last count) our thinking needs to be a good deal more bold and innovative to steer our shopping centre away from total disaster.   more

The Society has continued to express its concerns about vandalism to one of Coventry’s most historic buildings—Copsewood Grange. While the building is surrounded by a high security fence out-of-control youths are still gaining access to wreck the interior of the building. Its owners, Australian development firm Goodmans has promised to step up security but as we go to press the building continues to suffer the onslaught.   more

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire have alerted us to the fact that there are 34 empty shops in our city centre; with the number growing by the week. Of course these are grim times on the high street and there is no magic answer to the dilemma of retailers chasing customers with less to spend in their pockets. As we all know it’s often been a question of very high rents and overheads that has made trading so precarious. But it’s not so long ago the Society made very practical suggestions on this very subject.   more

Standing among the boarded-up shops of the windswept River Walk, CityDev supremo JM4.01 unveiled plans for the complete redevelopment of Coventry City Centre. “Our city centre is underperforming.” he said, “the retail units are not fit for the 2050s, they do not have the modern transporter technology. Every other city has at least one moonbeam shop, but none of the major moonbeam chains want to locate in Coventry” “As you know we have had huge problems maintaining the rooftop park; it got taken over by jetboarders and after the riots last year we had to shut it off completely.”   more

It’s official, we are in recession, and property developments in Coventry have not been immune from the effects. We have seen the developers of Belgrade Plaza change their housing plans into a scheme for student accommodation, while on the same site, Radisson struggle to find financial backers to build their hotel. The immediate effects of the recession are worrying, but a bigger concern is how our politicians and planers react. For years Coventry has been a city where the promise of a couple of hundred jobs bought a free pass through the planning system. Are worries about the financial downturn going to make us more of a ‘push-over city’? Or could we use this pause in property market as an opportunity?   more

Supporters of Allesley Park Walled Garden have written to City Council leader Ken Taylor following the baffling decision by cabinet member Tim Sawden to block the development of their exemplary project. They are hoping that there might be someone in the council leadership who can recognise a great opportunity when they see it.   more

We are told that a new version of the plan for the retail core of Coventry city centre should be whizzing over the wires from Los Angeles any day now. But why are they bothering? Surely it is only a matter of months before this over-hyped scheme is quietly shelved. Jerde’s plan looked unfeasible in the overheated property market of early last year. Today it just looks like a joke. Why not get serious and start planning a 21st century city, instead of repeating the mistakes of the past? Click the link on the right to read our full response to the draft plan, and we have created a new section on the left with all our articles about the city centre.   more