“Nine months on, is there any sign of work commencing on the sports centre?”

“Having lived in Leicester for all of my life, as well as being a student at De Montfort University, I have to say that I do not think the comments here are very fair.

There is quite a lot to be gained from the regeneration project. Admittedly, it is regrettable that a structure like the Bowstring bridge was demolished. A publicly accessible sports hall and swimming pool is a reasonable trade off though, surely? Ask yourselves honestly, if a sports facility (historic or not) was being torn down to make way for a bridge, which would you value more?

In addition, De Montfort is creating numerous open spaces around its main site, and helping to preserve other buildings of historic interest, such as the Magazine Gateway. In light of this, it seems odd to slate the institution as a 'destroyer of local heritage'.

Re: the accommodation points brought up by Nick Di Perna, I feel I do not have access to much information on this, and therefore will refrain from making much of a judgement on it. However, judging from recent statistics, I imagine a shortage of student applicants is not a big worry for De Montfort.

Thanks,
Jack”

“A situation is arising in Leicester where the supply of purpose-built student development (PBD) is in serious danger of overshooting local demand, leading to the very real possibility of smaller private lets becoming empty. Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMA) recommends that ¿a new policy response is clearly required by Leicester City and Charnwood Borough Councils to ensure that future planning consents do not de-stabilise the market¿. Young Polish migrant workers living in areas like Narborough Road have been providing a substitute student demand but this is unlikely to hold up in the longer term.

City planners have put great faith in purpose-built developments but have failed to consider one key aspect. It has been widely acknowledged that the sitting of PBDs within areas of student concentration can exacerbate the social, economic and environmental problems caused by demographic imbalance which undermines a community¿s capacity to tackle these problems. Insensitively sited purpose-built developments, most notably in the West End, have actually been a deterrent in the rebalancing of the community.

The strategy pursued by De Montfort University over the last decade has been to pursue ¿an aggressive asset management approach¿ according to the SHMA report. University policy of closing out of town halls and selling off sites for development appears ¿wholly rational and responsive to the free market demands of students¿. But in a wider strategic housing market sense it is increasing polarisation by ¿concentrating more young people in the central areas, and more affluent families in suburban areas¿. Co-operation between the universities would be helpful but they see themselves in direct competition with each other and are unwilling to share potentially sensitive market information.

SHMA concludes that Leicester City Council should urgently consider a new policy to refuse planning consent for ¿specialist student developments of more than 50 units¿. The latest application by Jamie Lewis Residential Lettings for a huge student complex on Western Road has been submitted against a backdrop of objections by local residents. Let's hope that Leicester City Council listens to reason before the damage to the community is irreversible.

I don¿t take what university professors say too seriously these days as they are more in the PR business than the education business.”

“Despite being one of the Bowstring campaigners, I'll probably use your pool when it's built. But please stop trying to spin this issue away. Please understand that your organisation did something deeply unpopular and a lot of people haven't forgiven you for it. Trying to pin the demolition on the city council just comes across as underhand once again. An apology would go a long way...”

“prof.shellard misses the point (strangely, for a highly intelligent academic; could it be deliberate?).

dmu can do all the good it likes but that doesn't give it the right to then do something bad! they could easily have incorporated the bridge and pub into a new multi-storey sports centre. given all the other multi-storey developments in town it makes no sense to build a 1 or 2 storey building on such a high value plot. and it doesn't help when the new vice-chancellor keeps defending his predecessor or spinning this story. he should simply apologize for what has gone before and promise never to repeat past mistakes but i fear all his words so far show someone as arrogant and dismissive as his predecessor.”