Historic Coventry street 'embarrassing' and in need of 'urgent' plan

[dutchman]

Anita Jardine has been working with the other businesses in the area to give the street a breath of fresh air



A business owner has called for an 'urgent' plan to rejuvenate a historic area of Coventry. And while she said Spon Street was a 'jewel' in the city's crown, she said it was embarrassing to see tourists who make their way there forced to dodge bins and look upon empty buildings.

The condition of the street was clear to see when CoventryLive visited recently, with multiple empty frontages, disused plots, and peeling paint along the front of some of these buildings. While this doesn’t apply to all the mediaeval buildings along the street, enough are in this condition to be noticed by the average passer-by.

Anita Jardine, co-owner of 17 Spon Street said she attended a recent Coventry Society meeting. At that meeting, she voiced her concerns to the visiting speaker council CEO Dr. Julie Nugent.

“In the 70s, these beautiful mediaeval buildings were thought to be of such significance, they were moved brick by brick from other parts of the city, to Medieval Spon Street. Since then, we have seen many businesses leave due to rent hikes, and six council owned buildings are currently unoccupied and unmaintained. For the successful businesses that remain, this is hard to see.”

Anita described the street as a 'jewel in Coventry’s crown.' She added: “Daily, we have visitors to the street, from all over the world, yet it’s embarrassing to watch them dodge commercial bins to view unkempt murals and badly maintained council owned buildings. We need Coventry City Council need to put a plan together urgently, so these buildings aren’t lost beyond repair.“

Anita suggested that with many businesses displaced from the the City Centre South project, and the City crying out for small independent retailers, “it seems an obvious move to bring them into the street.”

Anita had been actively working to help try and rejuvenate the area. She said that, on behalf of her and other Spon Street traders, she was working with the council’s City Pride scheme to get the basics right in the street.

This included street cleaning, planters, litter bins, and to call on the council to find a resolution for commercial bin storage, which she said had been an issue for many years. The result was pavements blocked and pedestrians having to bypass by going into the road. Anita said: “Recently I watched two wheelchair users navigate the bins by going into the road, and thought something has got to change, this is so wrong.

“I’ve suggested a solution to the council, which is to allow access at the rear of the properties to the old IKEA service road.” Coventry City Council was approached comment.