Letters

Please send your letters to Ruth Taylor at the.reporter@leeds.ac.uk or send them by post to: The Reporter, Employee communications team, Room 12.72, E C Stoner Building.

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CHILDCARE CENTRE
A number of things strike me about the message circulated to all users of the purple zone car park recently concerning anticipated disruptions and reduced parking space over the next two years due to improvements to nursery facilities.

First, whilst I am pleased to see the University investing in high-quality childcare facilities, it was less than a decade ago that a ‘new’ nursery was built under similar promises of improvement (I know because I had two daughters who moved from the Fourman Nursery to the Bright Beginnings nursery at the time). I seem to remember being told then that the new building would last over 30 years!

Second, it has always amazed me that the University sees fit to locate a nursery in a car park. I have never seen the logic in having young children play in areas next to cars with associated air pollution and health risks.

Third, why will the new nursery take at least two years to build? Other buildings around the University have been completed in much shorter timescales!

Fourth, recently the purple zone car park appears to have become taken over by Sustain vans – I’m not sure what’s going on here or why there need to be so many – some of my colleagues host conspiracy theories – but I do hope that some alternative venue can be found for this fleet of vans during the extended period of disruption.

Finally, many users of the purple zone would take issue with the term ‘car park’ for what, after all, is a muddy bog with pitted pot-holes that becomes an ice skating rink in freezing weather conditions, more suited for scramblebike and 4x4 racing. It is difficult to see what staff who pay for the pleasure(!) of parking in purple zone actually get for their money.

In the Reporter two years ago Robert Sladdin, in proud reference to the University estates strategy, promised improvement work ‘to address the drainage and gradient problems’. That seems laughable today!

Professor Adam Crawford, School of Law

Reply: The current Bright Beginnings Childcare Centre was built because the previous Fourman Nursery had dry rot and had to be replaced at short notice. Since then it has been decided to expand childcare provision at the University.

Whilst the modular building still has many serviceable years of life, the University wants to provide a permanent replacement that maximises the site’s potential and allows us to increase the number of places available for children aged three months to five years.

The new childcare centre will have fully-fenced, dedicated play spaces and access to a new landscaped square beside it. This is a public realm improvement required by Leeds City Council as a planning condition related to the Charles Morris Hall development. As a result of both developments, the provision of parking spaces in this part of the campus will be reduced.

The new childcare centre is not taking two years to build – the contractors have a 50- week build programme, after which the Bright Beginnings team will have a familiarisation phase before the building opens.

WD Sustain work purely for the University on reactive maintenance works and use their vehicles as their store/workshop. They have paid for four parking permits for the entire campus. Whilst alternatives to using the vans have been looked at, it has been agreed that these are unworkable. We are aware of additional vehicles that park on University property from time to time, and these are subject to parking enforcement and discussion with contractors’ senior management.

The purple zone car park has never been fully surfaced, but when pot-holes are reported they are filled in. To date there are no plans to tarmac this site due to its potential use as a further development site, and ongoing works such as the childcare centre, which have been planned for some time. However, some upgrading of the surface did take place two years ago at a cost of £50,679.

Steve Gilley, Deputy-director (technical services), Estate Services