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Chaucer Fields

Chaucer Fields. For what benefit? At what cost ? The no-pictures version of the presentation Chris Rootes gave to UCU meeting on 10-5-2012. Good for the University?. More student accommodation A hotel as ‘a financial diversification measure ’. More student accommodation?.

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Chaucer Fields

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  1. Chaucer Fields For what benefit? At what cost? The no-pictures version of the presentation Chris Rootes gave to UCU meeting on 10-5-2012

  2. Good for the University? • More student accommodation • A hotel as ‘a financial diversification measure’

  3. More student accommodation? • Kent already accommodates a higher % of students on campus than many competitors (and less than some others) • Many students prefer to live off-campus • Risk of over-provision? (in view of uncertainties over pattern of future demand, more home-based students, possible shift of balance to fewer undergraduates / more post-graduates, esp. research students) • Increased student numbers likely to increase HMOs

  4. A hotel? • Uncertain demand • Especially in view of increasing provision in / closer to town • Impact on local economy: ‘occupancy in the accommodation provider market will decline as a result of the new hotel. The conference centre hotel is estimated to reduce occupancy levels across the Canterbury accommodation market from 83% in 2010 to 46.5% in 2014.’ GVA (EA Appendix 1, para 1.17)

  5. A conference centre? • Hotel Solutions report (9/2011) on the market potential for the proposed conference centre concluded: • Not likely to be attractive to corporate / international conferences • ‘will need to be priced competitively to overcome its locational weaknesses and attract association and public sector conferences.’ • Declining demand for residential conferences? • A speculative investment?

  6. Opportunity costs • Under-investment in academic facilities • Teaching rooms • Library (space shortage + exhaustion of book budget halfway through academic year, forcing students to rely on e-sources) • Academic staff • Squandering the surplus?

  7. A vision of / for the University • The things students and staff most value about the university campus: ‘views, proximity to nature and their social use’ [David Morley Associates (‘Landscape and social spaces analysis’ Document 3, 20.12.2010)] • A unique selling point: the University’s green environment • Building on Chaucer Fields would undermine a chief attraction of the university

  8. Chaucer Fields – a key cultural landscapefrom the Cathedral via Westgate Towers to St Dunstan’s In Canterbury Local Plan and green spaces surveys: • an area of High Landscape Value • Amenity Green Space

  9. TowardSt Dunstan’s church – development would impact especially heavily on this view

  10. Building on Chaucer Fields • An act of environmental vandalism to a uniquely valuable cultural landscape • Contrary to the Local Plan and national planning guidelines • Destructive of relations with the local community • Damaging to the university’s image, reputation and sustainability

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