Lower Holyhead Road courts

Theres another proposal in today's Coventry Times regarding developing (read Bulldozing!) the row of Court buildings at 5-7 Lower Holyhead Road. This is the planning proposal. I urge all forumers to register an Objection Comment on there. The row has been looked at to develop before. This was a proposal from 2008 when the Council's analysis declared "Despite the interesting historical nature of the site; little of historical interest remains at 5-7 Lower Holyhead Road." To be honest I never realised they were still there but surely they are worth saving!

Do you really think this is worth saving?

Not the rubbish in the foreground, no . . but the old cottages beyond . . yes!

Yes AD! As per Red.....Its the remaining row of courts behind - not the garages! They've been virtually hidden for years........

Fair enough. But what plan would you have for them? How much would it cost to restore them to something worthy of preservation compared to the cost of demolishing and rebuilding? They've been entirely unused for a decade, they've been gutted inside and they've mainly been altered, extended and left to rot. If a modern building was in this kind of state people would almost be demanding its demolition.

I'd rather see money spent on rebuilding them from scratch and turning them in to accommodation like they did with the TopShops further up the road by the ring road - than let a developer bulldoze the lot and build something completely out of character - maximising the space to suit their financial gains without a hint of concern that its in a conservation area.

Difficult one this. This is another little fragment of the pre-war city that is going to be demolished, and over the years many of these little isolated buildings have been demolished, such as pubs, fragments of old streets (such as on Bishop Street). They seem to be fragments left over during the post-war demolition that took place and sit awkwardly with the new streets. This is in an awkward position and might be difficult to get back into use. On the other hand, I think I'd rather see the Spon Street area expanded and reconstructed somewhat - all the gap sites filled in to make it look like proper frontages again and maybe re-used as housing, whether that's for students or residents. It is very worrying to see nothing but student developments. This is now a way to regenerate a city, and having a city centre that's slowly becoming reliant on downmarket stores, junk food and students is not good.

They''ll suffer the same fate as Wellington Gardens and Stanley Terrace. They'll be left to rot until the neighbours complain they've become an eyesore then they'll be pulled down and a memorial plaque erected on the site telling us what an interesting group of buildings they used to be. That's all that'll be left of Coventry soon, memorial plaques. I can visualise future generations reading the inscriptions on the plaques and thinking to themselves "If the buildings were so interesting why did they pull them down in the first place?"