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

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

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 3

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) 4

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? 5

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? 6

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, )] A unique selling point: the University’s green environment Building on Chaucer Fields would undermine a chief attraction of the university 7

Chaucer Fields – a key cultural landscape from 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 8

Toward St Dunstan’s church – development would impact especially heavily on this view 9

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 10