ASPIRATIONS AND OBSERVATIONS OF COVENTRY COUNCIL CHIEF 

Coventry City Council CEO Martin Reeves addressed The Coventry Society on Monday 8^th March in the old Bluecoat School Coventry.

Impression of Friargate

He revealed his initial perceptions of Coventry when he first arrived and outlined his vision for the future of the city. When Mr Reeves first came to Coventry he said he was impressed with the lack of traffic congestion in the city and attributed this partly due to the controversial inner ring road. Excellent and efficient transport links are very attractive to potential investors and it makes the challenge of attracting business to Coventry easier, the free flowing traffic of Coventry is a unique selling point. He then added that although the ring road was functional it was grey and unattractive, however he did not offer any ideas to make it more attractive.

Mr Reeves said that Coventry has a very diverse community who get along incredibly well and he described Coventry as a city at ease with itself with citizens who get along well with each other, reaching out across the ethnic range. He has also been struck by the friendliness of Coventrians and their can do attitude and helpfulness. He became aware very quickly that Coventrians are very self deprecating about themselves and Coventry, however if an outsider was to say anything derogatory about Coventry then Coventrians were fierce in their defence of their city. Most Coventrians love their city and are glad to live here. 

On the subject of what Coventry has to offer shoppers, he acknowledged that Coventry did not have many high end outlets and that reflected the disposable income of most Coventrians. This would affect the profile of visitors coming to the city to shop. Mr Reeves said that it was a cherished aspiration to attract a couple of high end retailers to the city as part of Coventry's renaissance.

Mr Reeves stated that Coventry has two excellent universities with Coventry University being one of the finest vocational universities in the UK, and The University of Warwick rated as one of the finest academic universities in the world.

He said he was delighted that some students who come to the city for higher education stay on after graduation and add great skills and value to the city. The challenge for the future is to increase the number of these bright young graduates who settle and work in Coventry. The future of Coventry's prosperity will be in selling know-how and intellectual property to the world rather than large scale manufacturing.

The Chief told the meeting that he could not find the "heart" of Coventry and said this was a problem for the city. He also said that the city lacked connectivity and that when he drives around the city he cannot work out whereabouts he is; or work out where one area finishes and another one starts. He tried to explain this by asking the audience where they would identify as the heart of the city, and how could visitors know that they have left say Canley and entered Tile Hill. So is the heart of the city Broadgate, The Cathedral Quarter, Millennium Square, or maybe The Precinct?

More work needs to be done on public transport integration and again one of Coventry's aspirations is an improved local rail network including an extra platform at Coventry Station and a new station at the Ricoh Arena. Convincing decision makers in London of this is a huge task due to reasons mentioned below.

Mr Reeves said it was important to make positive noises about Coventry and be pushy in the corridors of power in London and internationally. He told the meeting that Coventry never gets a mention in London and that this has got to change. He insisted that everyone in Coventry, politicians, business and the people, had there part to play in raising the city's profile. Mr Reeves emphasised how important the Friargate project is and stressed that it was vital that it was completed as soon as possible.

Mr Reeves said that Coventry had about 320,000 people crammed into a relatively small space in terms of square kilometres. Although he did not mention building on the greenbelt or expansion of the population or the city boundaries; he did say that he had a battle on his hands in convincing his politicians that unpopular decisions will have to be made in order to grow and develop Coventry. The Chief sees Coventry as a part of a sub region that he referred to as Coventry, Warwickshire and Solihull, he did not say if this is how central government see Coventry.

On the subject of councillors the Chief said that all of Coventry's councillors worked hard for the city and had Coventry's best interests at heart. He pointed out that anyone attending a full council meeting would be disappointed at the Punch and Judy style of debate, the same as we see in the House of Commons. Despite this nonsense councillors were dedicated to their duties. 

When Mr Reeves was asked if Coventry was going to benefit from the London Olympics he said that the benefits to Coventry would be long term, and that although neighbouring Birmingham had grabbed the headlines with Team USA and Jamaica training there, this would only be significant in the short term. He did not specify what these long term benefits for Coventry would be.

So what are your views?

Let us know by e-mail at community@activcoventry.com