Is the City of Leicester a dump?

[Spudulike]

A new hotel opposite the Cathedral coming soon....

 

St Martin's Lodge

[Wymsey]

Went through quite a bit of the city centre today and have to admit I'm surprised by the number of homelessness in the area.

Saw two together in front of the old Austin Reed shop on Belvoir Street, Somme on Charles Street and another one on Millstone Lane.

Sad to see in 2018.

-

Regarding the International Hotel site, amid a regular police presence there, can't the council just knock it down and construct something that's not a waste of an area?

Quite getting fed up of hearing about the area..

Edited 24 January 2018 by Wymeswold fox

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

7 hours ago, Wymeswold fox said:

Went through quite a bit of the city centre today and have to admit I'm surprised by the number of homelessness in the area.

Saw two together in front of the old Austin Reed shop on Belvoir Street, Somme on Charles Street and another one on Millstone Lane.

Sad to see in 2018.

-

Regarding the International Hotel site, amid a regular police presence there, can't the council just knock it down and construct something that's not a waste of an area?

Quite getting fed up of hearing about the area..

 

There were plans to turn it into a hotel but I think they failed to meet the minimum requirements for room size per inhabitant, or something (might have been in a link Davie posted recently). There also seems to have been issues with people losing millions in investments in a student accomodation scheme.

 

It's a shame because Leicester has next to no decent looking high rise buildings at all (unless you count a couple of churches / the Telephone Exchange which I like for some reason) and getting the hotel well kitted out could've given the skyline a bit more character instead of abandoned hotels and whitewashed windows.

Edited 25 January 2018 by Miquel The Work Geordie

[TiffToff88]

My boss certainly seems to think the city is a dump, so much so that he told us yesterday that the City Centre office i currently work in is closing down as he hates having to come into the city every day. Can't say i disagree to be fair, our office is in the "Trendy Cultural Quarter" and the whole are is a massive eyesore!

[Bob Hazels shorts]

11 hours ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

 

There were plans to turn it into a hotel but I think they failed to meet the minimum requirements for room size per inhabitant, or something (might have been in a link Davie posted recently). There also seems to have been issues with people losing millions in investments in a student accomodation scheme.

 

It's a shame because Leicester has next to no decent looking high rise buildings at all (unless you count a couple of churches / the Telephone Exchange which I like for some reason) and getting the hotel well kitted out could've given the skyline a bit more character instead of abandoned hotels and whitewashed windows.

 

You are right but It was cheap long term accommodation/rent not a hotel. Room sizes were an issue.

 

The planning requirements for student blocks are less than residential (parking etc) hence the flood. With the glut of inappropriate student blocks and the shortage of residential its easy to see what developers are doing

 

Also its beneficial for developers to leave buildings to become an eyesore if plans turned down in the hope that the council say oh fuuck it you can have permission. Look at the shiithole that is the old Abbey Hotel on Abbey Street.

 

Property should be compulsory purchased at 20% of its value if allowed to become in disrepair those occupied.

[Webbo]

SHAREDClothes shop to shut after 50 years

 

Quote

 

Calum McKenzie

BBC News

A shop that has been open since the 1960s will close its doors for the final time this weekend.

BBC

Irish, or Irish Menswear as it used to be known, on Leicester's High Street, will shut tomorrow with the loss of 15 jobs.

The company said it had taken the decision to close because of "too much competition" from out of town shopping centres.

 

 

 

 

Sad day for men of my generation. Irish was "the" shop where you bought your clothes when I was a teenager.

[RoboFox]

9 minutes ago, Webbo said:

Sad day for men of my generation. Irish was "the" shop where you bought your clothes when I was a teenager.

That's a shame, but symptomatic of the increasing migration to shopping online, and retailers undercutting the high street on prices. Irish never was the cheapest place to get your rags, either.

[Webbo]

2 minutes ago, RoboFox said:

That's a shame, but symptomatic of the increasing migration to shopping online, and retailers undercutting the high street on prices. Irish never was the cheapest place to get your rags, either.

Back in the early 80s, before Tesco started selling jeans etc, the clothes shops were all about the same pricewise.

[Wymsey]

Keith Vaz calls for security meeting after death on Belgrave Road.

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/keith-vaz-calls-security-meeting-1143394

[danny.]

On 25/01/2018 at 09:44, TiffToff88 said:

My boss certainly seems to think the city is a dump, so much so that he told us yesterday that the City Centre office i currently work in is closing down as he hates having to come into the city every day. Can't say i disagree to be fair, our office is in the "Trendy Cultural Quarter" and the whole are is a massive eyesore!

Where is that? I work on Rutland Street and really like the area!

[TiffToff88]

2 minutes ago, danny. said:

Where is that? I work on Rutland Street and really like the area!

LCB Deopt

[danny.]

Same here, fair enough - I don’t get that it’s a dump there at all but everyone’s opinion is different!

[MrSpaM]

On 26/01/2018 at 16:51, Webbo said:

SHAREDClothes shop to shut after 50 years

 

 

 

 

Sad day for men of my generation. Irish was "the" shop where you bought your clothes when I was a teenager.

I went in there for a pair of jeans not that long ago

 

Walked back out when I saw how much they charge! I remember back in the day everything being dirt cheap in there

[davieG]

These 2 major routes into Leicester are set to get bus lanes

 

Council bosses are set to put bus lanes along two of the busiest roads into Leicester.

The proposals for Narborough Road and Groby Road are part of a £3million plan to get more people using public transport instead of cars.

The Government has committed £2million towards the cost of work which will be complete by the end of 2019.

As well as adding the unenforced bus lanes the council will start issuing £60 fines to drivers who use the existing lane on Uppingham Road near the Coleman Road junction.

Currently the A426 Lutterworth Road into the city through Aylestone is the only enforced bus lane, though there are several bus gates where drivers are fined when they pass through them.

The city council’s major transport projects manager John Dowson set out the plans at a council meeting this week.

He said: “We have considered areas for new bus lanes where there is evidence buses are being considerably delayed.

“One of the bus lanes we have considered is on Groby Road.

“It is dual carriageway at the moment and buses become delayed as they approach the Blackbird Road junctions so we consider there is an advantage in putting a bus lane in.

“It has yet to be designed in any detail.

“The second lane is along Narborough Road from Fullhurst Avenue towards the railway bridge inbound.

“It may be a bus lane all the way along but there may be other kinds of priority.”

 

 

New bus routes

 

He said both lanes would improve bus journey times making the use of buses more appealing.

He added: “The enforcement area we are most keen to consider is Uppingham Road.

“There is regular use of that bus lane by general traffic as it hits the city."

Liberal Democrat councillor Nigel Porter said if fines were to be issued on the new lanes it should be only at peak traffic periods rather than 24/7 as they are in other enforcement areas in the city.

He also asked if Narborough Road was wide enough to accommodate bus lanes.

 

Mr Dowson said: “There are challenges in some parts and there are elements that could be reallocated.

“Within any bus lane site there are opportunities and challenges.

“All of the proposals will be subject to consultation.”

Further funding will be used to create a new exit from St Margaret's bus station directly on to Burley's Way.

Currently buses leaving the station must drive down Gravel Street and Abbey Street to get on the ring road.

The council says the new access will save each bus 4 minutes on their journey time.

 

Merc Poll  - Do you back plans for 2 new bus lanes?

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/2-major-routes-leicester-set-1187317

[Guest]

22 hours ago, davieG said:

These 2 major routes into Leicester are set to get bus lanes

 

Council bosses are set to put bus lanes along two of the busiest roads into Leicester.

The proposals for Narborough Road and Groby Road are part of a £3million plan to get more people using public transport instead of cars.

The Government has committed £2million towards the cost of work which will be complete by the end of 2019.

As well as adding the unenforced bus lanes the council will start issuing £60 fines to drivers who use the existing lane on Uppingham Road near the Coleman Road junction.

Currently the A426 Lutterworth Road into the city through Aylestone is the only enforced bus lane, though there are several bus gates where drivers are fined when they pass through them.

The city council’s major transport projects manager John Dowson set out the plans at a council meeting this week.

He said: “We have considered areas for new bus lanes where there is evidence buses are being considerably delayed.

“One of the bus lanes we have considered is on Groby Road.

“It is dual carriageway at the moment and buses become delayed as they approach the Blackbird Road junctions so we consider there is an advantage in putting a bus lane in.

“It has yet to be designed in any detail.

“The second lane is along Narborough Road from Fullhurst Avenue towards the railway bridge inbound.

“It may be a bus lane all the way along but there may be other kinds of priority.”

 

 

New bus routes

 

He said both lanes would improve bus journey times making the use of buses more appealing.

He added: “The enforcement area we are most keen to consider is Uppingham Road.

“There is regular use of that bus lane by general traffic as it hits the city."

Liberal Democrat councillor Nigel Porter said if fines were to be issued on the new lanes it should be only at peak traffic periods rather than 24/7 as they are in other enforcement areas in the city.

He also asked if Narborough Road was wide enough to accommodate bus lanes.

 

Mr Dowson said: “There are challenges in some parts and there are elements that could be reallocated.

“Within any bus lane site there are opportunities and challenges.

“All of the proposals will be subject to consultation.”

Further funding will be used to create a new exit from St Margaret's bus station directly on to Burley's Way.

Currently buses leaving the station must drive down Gravel Street and Abbey Street to get on the ring road.

The council says the new access will save each bus 4 minutes on their journey time.

 

Merc Poll  - Do you back plans for 2 new bus lanes?

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/2-major-routes-leicester-set-1187317

This is going to cause uproar. My take is that it will be a nightmare for motorists - groby road for example is already horrible during peak times. With my environmental hat on, though, we do need to do something to increase public transport take up. Personally think they should quadruple park and ride spaces and reduce bus fares at the same time as doing this on all major routes. Get everybody on the buses and reduce pollution. It wouldn't be popular but would be a step in the right direction. And perhaps without being stuck in jams all morning people might actually find they get to work less stressed.

Edited 10 February 2018 by Guest

[Rogstanley]

Ffs. They really should have left public transport promotion policies like reducing capacity for cars in the 90's when they were first proven to be a categorical failure. They've failed every time since. Why are they still doing it?

 

Well the cynic in me can't help but think that for "we want to increase bus usage for environmental reasons" you can read we want to reduce capacity for cars to the point where travelling by car is a heavily polluting, stressful activity in order to force more people to pay us so they can sit in our filthy polluting old buses. They've no interest in making improvements, just making more money. They're nothing but dirty scamming bastards. 

[davieG]

These are the scathing things Leicesterians have said about their own city

Online reviewers have held nothing back when describing what they think of Leicester

 

Hayley WatsonOnline Content Writer

09:00, 17 FEB 2018

 

Leicester has been dubbed “Land of the Chav” by online reviewers

 

No matter how much you love your area, there's probably a few gripes you have with living there.

But these Leicesterians have really slated our city in online reviews.

Leicester has been dubbed “Land of the Chav” on iLiveHere.co.uk, a website where users can submit their own takes - often extremely negative - on locations around the UK.

One poster described the city as “laden with ancient architecture a rich and interesting history and of course… brain-dead chavs”.

While another claimed that Leicester is “rife with men looking to cheat on their partners”, and that the city is “spoilt by the dirty men that live in it”.

Leicester has been slated for everything on the site from its residents to the city centre – which should apparently be avoided between 8pm and 4am at the weekend, because “this is the time when chavs ritualistically gather”.

In particular, the area around the Clock Tower was panned for its “stench of BO & cheap perfume”.

 

One even more scathing review claims that "Leicester seems to be proud of the obvious truth that it’s a mess.

The great unwashed suffer while deluded fools still insist everything’s fine and dandy.

Communities of various faiths and backgrounds have lived side by side for decades, and we’ve all watched Leicester turned in to a risible dump with rising crime in recent years."

Leicester's Clock Tower

Other areas around Leicester have also been criticised including Highfields, which was described as “the public lavatory of Leicester, where society’s victims are cruelly dumped like a drunk’s rancid turd in a battered bus shelter”.

Meanwhile, Oadby and Wigston were called “a warm breeding nest for the germs that are chavs”.

 

And out in Leicestershire, Melton Mowbray was described as “famous for its Pork Pies, Stilton cheese – and inbreeding”.

Highfields - the "public lavatory of Leicester"?

However, the reviews should probably be taken with a pinch as salt.

Complimentary commenters on the site also called Leicester “a shining gem of an ancient roman town”, and as having “an incredible football team, great shopping and pretty good nightlife”.

What do you think - do the reviews have a grain of truth to them? Or do they completely miss the mark?

[davieG]

Work to begin on £8.5 million project to revamp Leicester city centre

The work will start in Church Gate over the weekend as part of the city council's plans to improve the area around Leicester's Clock Tower

 

By

Dave Owen

15:57, 15 FEB 2018

UPDATED17:51, 15 FEB 2018

 

Work to transform a busy city centre shopping street is set to begin over the weekend.

Leicester City Council plans to revamp a stretch of Church Gate, between Vaughan Way and Mansfield Street, as part of its ongoing multi-million pound Connecting Leicester project.

The existing footpaths and carriageway will be reconstructed in "high quality materials", similar to those used on other recent city centre revamps in Silver Street and Guildhall Lane, and a contraflow cycle lane will be created.

The work, due to start on Sunday, will take about six months to complete and is part of a broader scheme, estimated to cost about £8.5million, to improve the area around Leicester's Clock Tower.

Artist impression of how the revamp would look

A city council spokesman said: "The work marks the first phase of a planned major scheme that will transform the area around Leicester’s Clock Tower, removing the buses and upgrading the environment on Church Gate and Belgrave Gate/Haymarket."

A short stretch of Gravel Street, between Church Gate and New Road, will also be improved in the project's first phase.

Road closures will be required during the works, which the council said will be carried out in two sections to "help minimise disruption".

Initially, the stretch of Church Gate from Vaughan Way to just past its junction with Gravel Street will be closed to traffic, where diversions will be in place.

The clock tower in Leicester city centre (Image: Jason Senior)

City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “This new investment in Church Gate will make a tremendous difference to this popular shopping street.

“Reconstructing the footpaths and carriageway will help dramatically improve the look and feel of the area."

He added: "This is just the first phase of a much more ambitious vision to transform and improve this part of the city centre, creating a traffic-free and much more attractive environment for pedestrians, businesses and potential investors.

“It is vital that we continue to invest in regenerating the city centre, to create safer and more attractive routes and ensure that it continues to prosper as a place that people want to visit and explore.”

 

 

The proposed improvements to the Clock Tower area will be supported by £6 million from the Government’s Local Growth Fund, with the remaining £2.5million met by Section 106 developer contributions expected from the Castle Acres retail park development on the site of the former Everards Brewery, by Fosse Park.

The Connecting Leicester project is aimed at improving routes through the city centre for pedestrians and cyclists, while making it more attractive to investors and developers.

The city council spokesman said: "We are also planning to create a new road linking Belgrave Gate with Mansfield Street to provide a quick route out of the city centre for buses leaving Haymarket Bus Station.

"Together with an upgraded Sandacre Street, the new road would form a new pedestrian route between the Haymarket and St Margaret’s bus stations. It would also remove the need for buses to use Church Gate."

[boots60]

City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “This new investment in Church Gate will make a tremendous difference to this popular shopping street.

“Reconstructing the footpaths and carriageway will help dramatically improve the look and feel of the area."

 

May's Electrical, Ron's Barbers, Oldham's Tool shop, Jimmy Walsh's newsagent, Bree's music shop.

Just a few of the establishments that made Churchgate a pleasant place to potter along.

Now, its OK if you want your nails done or if you fancy a pint in either of the two grottiest pubs in Leicester.

Churchgate has been a shitehole of a street for a long time & I cant see a new layer of Chinese paving slabs making too much difference.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Yeah I'll defend Leicester because I think for a city of its size it's more than decent, but Churchgate is an absolute pit.

[Wymsey]

The area requires improvement, yes, but it's the type of people you often see hang around there that makes others perceive the area as grim.

Similar to London Road; a few decent bars and restaurants etc, but you can often see people who like to hang around there asking for trouble etc.

Edited 17 February 2018 by Wymeswold fox

[Parafox]

6 hours ago, Wymeswold fox said:

The area requires improvement, yes, but it's the type of people you often see hang around there that makes others perceive the area as grim.

Similar to London Road; a few decent bars and restaurants etc, but you can often see people who like to hang around there askimg for trouble etc.

I think that's quite a lot to do with proximity of the Dawn Centre.

[Mr Mister]

Leicester needs less student flats and more affordable homes for ordinary people.

[davieG]

Leicester is one of the LEAST thriving places in England - according to new survey

The index looks at 48 separate indicators, with the city performing badly on the work and local economy category

 

By

Claire Miller

David Owen

00:01, 19 FEB 2018

Is Leicester one of the least thriving places in England? Because it is according to a new index.

The Thriving Places Index aims to assess how well local authorities are doing at creating the conditions for people to thrive.

It looks at three main categories - local conditions, sustainability and equality - based on 48 separate indicators including health, education and work.

Leicester scored just 3.5 out of 10 for local conditions, putting it in the bottom 20 nationally.

But it's a picture that city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby does not recognise.

He said: "This research seems more like an advert for the people who have come up with it and it doesn’t reflect the reality in Leicester."

The city scores just 2.8 in the work and local economy category - and just 0.9 for the good jobs indicator - with a higher proportion of people in poorer quality jobs, defined as low wage or temporary.

Leicester is 18th from bottom when it comes to air pollution and people exercising outdoors - but is in the top 20 nationally in the 'sustainability' category, with scores suggesting lower than average CO2 emissions and energy consumption - and above average recycling rates.

 

Sir Peter said that Leicester is standing its ground - despite being "disproportionately" hit by the Government's austerity cuts.

He said: "Cities like Leicester have been disproportionately hit by austerity and this has created huge challenges.

"However, we have recently attracted a number of big-name employers offering high-quality jobs, including IBM and Hastings Direct. More than 2,000 jobs have been created in the city in 2016 and 2017.

"Air quality is an issue for all large urban areas, but Leicester has improved in recent years, meeting Government targets in all but one measure."

He added: "We are investing heavily in urban improvement schemes, such as our £80m Waterside regeneration plan, to create a thriving, prosperous city, and this is already bringing in private investment.

“We are also creating more school places, with 90 per cent of local authority schools rates good or outstanding by Ofsted, and we plan to invest £2million in our leisure centres to help people to lead healthy lifestyles.”

 

In comparison, Leicestershire is 28th from top in the general index and is ranked 11th for 'place and environment'.

County council leader, Councillor Nick Rushton said: “We are working hard with partners to ensure the county is a thriving place within which to live and work.

"Leicestershire scores highly on this index - reflecting the attractiveness of the county to businesses and investors, the number and quality of jobs, and the quality of the environment."

The path that runs through the centre of Bradgate Park

He added: "The council’s new Strategic Plan sets the framework for maintaining and building on this strong position.”

The report argues that thriving places require investment in a range of areas - including mental and physical health; work and the local economy; education and learning opportunities; the qualities of the place and its environment, and the connections between people and community.

Liz Zeidler, founding director of Happy City, said: “We are ten years on from an economic crisis that highlighted fatal flaws at the heart of our economy, yet we haven’t seen the systemic changes needed to tackle them.

“Rising inequality and climate chaos are clear alarm bells that tell us the current system is no longer fit for purpose, so we decided to take matters into our own hands and come up with a model that measures what matters."

 

She added: "The Index is a practical tool, that can be used right now, to help leaders who want to ensure the sum of their efforts - in every sector

- is a better quality of life for people now and in the future.”

Overall, the index reveals both a North-South divide and some stark urban-rural differences. All 11 local authorities with the lowest scores for local conditions are urban.

 

 

 

UrAvingALaff

Having first arrived in Leicester (From Nottinghamshire) in 1997, the first thing that hit me was how poor the road system was, poorly constructed junctions and poorly coordinated traffic light signals.  Its fair to say these haven't improved, hence why I choose to cycle to work (which has improved!)...  The other thing that struck me about Leicester city centre is how small it is, it takes no more than 15 minutes to walk from the train station to the bus station!  The centre isn't big, its very compact which leads to everything including traffic being squeezed together... It also has very little to offer, other than the Highcross, what is there?  

 

RandolphEatonHowe

I visited on Friday, I try to pop over a couple of times a year, and I was so saddened by what I saw. What was once one of the country's finest markets was at best 75% full, prime location shops in Granby St and Humberstone Gate shut, and god knows how many beggars I saw. What the hell is going on?

 

Celtictiger60

Air quality could be easily improved if the City Council's dual policies of not dealing with existing bottlenecks coupled with that of creating new bottlenecks for motor traffic was addressed effectively. We all know you can't get a quart into a pint pot but this is how the Council have been going over the last three decades. 

And reduce the number of blasted traffic lights around the City!

 

UrAvingALaff

Do they create the bottle necks or are they created by the increasing shear volume of traffic?  As you say, you cannot get a "quart into a pint pot"... How do you do this without destroying what bits of Architecture Leicester has, for a big city, its very compact...  

 

reallyoldhenry

Pretty well every way you enter the City it looks derelict. Old factories -some burnt out- and empty shops. Highcross sucked the life blood out of the rest of the City and should not have been built. As for the messy pavements and dejected Gallowtree Gate a shadow of how I remember it. The City scores well for bike lanes and bus lane. Only the bikes actually use the pavements and the bus lanes have no buses for a large part of the  24 hour day but they collect cash for new bus lanes hey?

I think the report is perfectly correct and I blame the residents for voting for a dictator to run the City instead of an elected council.

 

Jonah10

Its a rapidly declining,poverty stricken,drink and drug infested,crime ridden disgrace of a City. Wouldnt go if you paid me 

 

TheEqualiser6591

I am proud of the way many parts of Leicester look these days compared to the 70s and 80s. There have been many major visual improvements though there are still things to do, particularly around the Belgrave Gate to Humberstone area. What has damaged opportunity in the city and surrounding area is the destruction of skilled, well paid manufacturing jobs with low skilled, low paid warehousing and retail work. Align that to the virtual ghettoisation of the City into Asian, Somali, Eastern European and White British enclaves, where people generally rub along ok together, and the fact the jobs for these communities is generally low paid and low skilled, if it exists at all, no wonder we are percieved as a city which is not thriving. Add to that the congestion and I see where the writers are coming from - what we needed is skilled manufacturing and higher wages, which since globalisation, isn’t going to happen. What we actually have is what was euphemistically called in the 70s ‘managed decline’ and SPS is doing a job in trying to polish the floor on the Titanic. Good luck, Sir Peter, and whilst your heart is in the right place, Leicester will not thrive without better integration/jobs.

 

2foxesinyorkshire

I left Leicester 25 years ago but come home on a regular basis throughout the year to see family and watch the City. During that time I’ve seen the City decline thanks to a succession of airbrain projects by the Labour controlled Council. 

Like most politicians once elected they ignore the people and pursue there own agenda and the current Mayor is a prime example. But at the end of the day Leicester is my own town and I’ll defend it to the hilt and wherever in the World I happen to be, I’m proud to tell them, I’m born and bred Leicester.

 

 

robbotto

I bet Sir Peter is fuming just like all the traffic queuing in Leicester today

 

BareNakedTruth

Leicester, although not as bad as some other cities, is most definitely on the decline. Look at the rising crime, limited opportunities for employment, rising poverty and low wages. There are many reasons for this, but SPS needs to step up to the plate and accept some blame. His visions for a modern city are outdated as is his capability to run the Leicester City Council. He's a megalomaniac who takes no notice of the local people's needs and presses on with his own agenda. Change is needed in Leicester if we want things to improve.

 

Emma

Yet ppl from different city come to live in Leicester they should stay in their own city
 

 

Upthecity

sir peter can never agree with any criticism not even when its staring him in the face ..look at me waiting on aylestone road car running going nowhere with a empty bus lane how about that for helping air quality sir Pete 

[Mr Mister]

They should just just demolish that International Hotel Building as it is an eyesore. But the council are just too dumb to see it.