Uncertain future for huge Network Rail conference centre in Coventry
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2022 10:53 pm
A worker says they've been told the facility will be mothballed while Network Rail says the numbers using it have decreased
A huge conference and training facility in Coventry belonging to Network Rail is set to be mothballed, it has been claimed. The Network Rail Westwood Training Centre is located on Westwood Heath Road in Coventry.
It is a large conferencing and residential facility with training suites, conference rooms, an auditorium, bedrooms, restaurants and bars. It also has a sports complex with courts, gyms and a swimming pool.
The training centre also boasts landscaped grounds and fountains. Most recently it has been used for the training of Network Rail apprentices.
Network Rail says the facility has seen decreasing numbers using it and that as regards its future it is “working towards finding a way forward”. It comes as a worker at the Westwood Training Centre alerted CoventryLive to Network Rail’s plans to mothball the facility.
They said: “We were told they are going to shut it completely at Christmas. It was a management centre but is currently for Network Rail apprentices and has been for five or six years.
“They are going to be working from home. We’ve been told it is going to be shut and mothballed.
“They have been very vague as regards what’s going to happen to the building, though they have told us it is going to be shut.”
The worker added: “It’s a proper conference centre, with rooms - more than 170 bedrooms - and full kitchen facilities. They are saying it is just going to sit idle from December.
"The sports centre with a swimming pool has shut already. They’re still having conferences and apprentices are still doing courses but they’re being put up in hotels and taxied and bussed in, even though we’ve got bedrooms sitting idle.”
A Network Rail spokesman said: “We’re committed to investing in developing our people. That’s why we’ve improved the way we deliver our apprenticeship schemes and moved to a local-led training model.
“The Westwood centre for apprenticeship training has seen decreasing numbers using the facilities and we are working towards finding a way forward.”
