At the beginning of last November I wrote an article about the announced plans for the development of a new £40 million sports village which was set to include a whole host of improvements on the current setup – from an all-glass Squash show court, to a climbing wall. Many, including myself, were excited by the planning team’s optimism and innovativeness which epitomised their bid, a proposal set to improve The University of Nottingham even further.
However, the dream has sadly ended with the announcement that the planning for the new sports village has been rejected on the account of three rather old oak trees (150 years to be precise).
The decision made by Nottingham City Council has not come without its criticism with registrar Dr Paul Greatrix firmly planting (see what I did there?) a number of points to the council in regard to their objection to the plans.
Dr Paul Greatrix also emphasised how “The University, its staff and students generate over a billion pounds a year for the economy of this city” then coming to end his passionate outburst by remarking that whilst the three oak trees are significant, there are 600 other trees across the campus that fall under the same category of significance. This point should also be noted in reference to the uni’s continuing push towards producing a greener campus.
In defence of their decision, one councillor (Cat Arnold) stated: “I’m very worried about the prospect of losing the trees. It would be vandalism for the trees to be axed“. Sally Longford (a member of the planning committee and a ward councillor) fought against arguments that the council were contradictory in their dealing with this situation by stating that “none of the trees that were lost during the tram construction were veteran trees and the older the tree the more valuable it is to the eco-systems surrounding it.“
No further news has appeared as of yet, however, given the size and potential of the project it is perhaps a question of sooner rather than later as to when a compromise will be met. It seems that this issue is just a question of simple metres according to Sally Longford and therefore all hope isn’t necessarily lost. If the Uni can provide an altered vision and make amendments to the current plans then we could still see that space-age sports village forming in the near future.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-30931270
http://www.hercampus.com/school/nottingham/bright-future-notts-sporting-stars
Image Sources
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/estates/developments/sportscentre.aspx
Edited by Georgina Varley