Quay Side Cafe Petition

Jon_Manning

I was asked for a fer people to start a petition over the closure of the cafe on the Wivenhoe trail. We have had a steady string of signatures on the E petition but we need more. Keeping this watering hole open is in the interests of anyone using the trail.If it closes there will be no halfway house between Wivenhoe and Colchester. If you could spread the word I would be grateful.

http://bobrussell.org.uk/en/petition/petition-to-save-the-quayside-cafe

Needham

Jon. I have already written to the University about this on behalf of Wivenhoe Town Council. Cllr Bob Needham

puffin

Have already signed up. Come on everyone who cares about this unique treasure: sign up now! The University are relying on our apathy; let's give them a surprise...

Jason

Mr Mule wrote passionately about the Town 'n Gown equation in the East Anglian last weekend. He has very kindly agreed to the piece being posted up here:

"To glance at it's something and nothing. Just a steel and glass cafe at the Hythe, selling standard Euro nursery fare: paninis, chips, baked beans, hash browns, fizzy drinks, coffees and teas. It's functional, unpretentious and reasonably priced. It's clean, light and airy, with pleasant staff. It might easily be a small student refectory for a further ed. college annexe.

The Quayside Cafe overlooks the River Colne at the Hythe, at the point where the ships used to turn. Handily, it's also at the Colchester end of the Wivenhoe Trail. This is where, if you've walked or cycled from Wivenhoe, you'll stop and sit. If you've got little kids and they need a break, you might dock in here. It's where, if you've cycled a few miles and need a few carbs before pressing on down the track, there's a pit-stop.

As I mentioned earlier, the place is really nothing special. And yet, it is. Lots of people use it. On the odd sunny Sunday – in days before our now-teenage daughters were too cool to hang out with their dads – fellow scribe, John Cooper Clarke and I used to meet up there for a late breakfast. He'd wander down Hythe Hill, we’d amble along the track from Wivenhoe and then we'd all meet up at the cafe. The poet and folklorist Dr. Adrian May, who lives nearby, is sometimes to be found there, too. Working writers use cafes. J.K.Rowling wrote most of her first Harry Potter novel in one.

The University of Essex owns the Quayside Cafe. At the end of March, the people whom they'll lease it to will close it. It's not making enough money, they say. They appreciate that a 'small number of people use it' but they have to 'prioritise' their spending on behalf of the students. In other words, they'll turn it into accommodation. Well, amen to that. The Uni giveth and the Uni taketh away. May I be the first to say that I'm beginning to get a bit fed up with the University, their Knowledge Gateway, the attendant tearing up of lovely old trees and the hideous new access road which cuts onto Clingoe Hill. I'm also sick of them gnawing big chunks out of the green buffer which separates Colchester from the rest of Tendring I hate the arrogant way they just bluster in, knock things down and put up ugly blocks of buildings without anyone calling them to account. How does that work, precisely? Is it all in the sacred name of education?

Lately, having just gouged a scar the size of a council tip between the Boundary Road and the River Colne, for the time being, they've stopped building. I only know this because whilst on a train I met a steel fixer, who confirmed the fact to me.

And now, King Uni will close the little riverside cafe and transfer its staff to the main campus. It's a tiny thing I know, but to me. It's the last straw. Can't they, if they're intent upon making all this mess and pricing our English kids out of the education market, just leave a little cafe on the river open for the locals – and for those of their own students who live down there?

The Hythe, Colchester’s ancient former engine room, is in transition. It's being re-tailored for the future. The regeneration of East Colchester is a serious ongoing project and very much a long game. Now, much as this may surprise certain people, the old Hythe does actually have a community. What the much-misunderstood unfinished symphony which is the new Hythe doesn't yet possess are enough of the amenities which constitute normal street life.

The Quayside Cafe, functional, neutral and more importantly, open, is one of the Hythe's few such assets Like many sophisticated things, it's very simple. You can sit outside it when it's sunny and you can nip indoors when it's cold. There are loos there, too. It's the right thing in the right place. Remove it and you'll give all the doubters yet more ammo with which to whinny about why the new Hythe is never going to work.

Worth much more to society, than any money it might make, the Quayside Cafe only needs to tick over. And I'll bet you anything that there's someone, somewhere in Colchester who'd love to run it. Maybe those Colchester Slackspace people would know? Perhaps Matt, the young man who was temporarily installed at Colchester's old Bus Station Cafe, could run it? Until recently, when his lease expired, Matt served coffee and cake from a tiny kiosk and also ran a bicycle repair shop next door.

The accountants at the Court of King Uni might seriously reconsider this matter. Or perhaps the oft-used 'Town and Gown' detente should be reassessed right here. Town and Gown should not just mean occasionally inviting a few of the locals in for a big backslap and bow-tie dinner. Nor should it suffice simply doling out the honorary degrees like dog-treats once a year to a touchingly grateful hoi polloi. Much better if Gown were to ask Town: “Look, we can't really use this cafe at the moment, but we know you like it. How would you like to rent it?” Come on guys. Play fair."

Marika

Mr Mule's piece suddenly made me wonder if the University has a corporate responsibility policy.
I entered the term into the site's search engine.
I didn't find a policy, but the search came up with a fair few suggestions - all to do with how they are involved in scrutinising and researching and investigating CR matters ... globally.

Perhaps it's time the university looked closer to home.

Jason

The idea of putting the Bike Guru in at the cafe is just perfect. He wants to expand, sell coffee and fix bicycles. The Quayside Cafe is the ideal location.

Simon

I agree with Martin's every word and, as ever, he expresses himself so much more eruditely then I ever could on a subject that has been annoying me ever since I learned of the cafe's impending closure. The uni will rake in countless £millions from its Knowledge Gateway with its landmark building designed by Daniel Libeskind, hotel, food leisure and retail facilities, 32,000 square feet of business units, and private sector housing yet they begrudge us, and their own students living above and around it, one little cafe. And don't even start me about the mess they have made on Clingoe Hill or their stubborn refusal to reopen Boundary Road.

Once again the uni takes, and in return we get zero, zilch, nada. Nothing. Well unless you count a junction that no-one wanted and a monstrous blot on the landscape that is yet to be built.

As usual the uni will probably not listen to reason, so take a minute to sign the petition, then post it on your Facebook, Tweet it if that is also your thing (and retweet regularly) and urge your friends and followers to to do the same.

Maybe we can shame them into it!

Right, I'm off to see if I can enlist the aid of the 1500 or so folk that follow Colchester 101's social media.

HazelH

I agree. All through my time studying at and working at Essex Uni (which I greatly enjoyed), I heard the urge expressed to forge links with the community, yet all so often those opportunities to do so seemed to be ignored (when I started a comedy night there, the idea of allowing non student locals in at a higher cost was even frowned upon - although thankfully the arts/events on campus do seem to have opened up a little).

It can get a little irksome having over an hour added onto ones commute into town due to the building work, only for this to continue as the buses are rerouted on a magical mystery tour around moon base alpha through an extra set of blimming barriers. Heaven forfend working local folk pay for their kids to attend the Uni nursery - now they have to drive even further around to drop their sprogs off and get out again. People are having to work longer to get their hours in and if they drive they pay more on petrol - you'd think there would be just a little bit of give along with the take. It'd be nice if the anticipated businesses and the jobs could arrive with the Knowledge Gateway - but my concern is that if and when employers come they will probably bring their core staff with them, offering very little in the way of genuine work opportunities so vitally needed locally.

The Quayside Cafe always seemed like one of the positive things the Uni had - and also presented real possibilities in terms of establishing local links. If it does indeed become more student accommodation I'd be interested to know how the university plans to provide dining facilities for those extra students.

clarekane

I hate to say it, but I am a local working parent with a child at the Uni nursery (and one at the local school) and the new junction has significantly reduced my journey times at both ends of the day. Just thought I'd mention it. As you were!

Boertjie

Always thought "Knowledge Gateway" is so original...:)

Signed the petition. I sometimes cycle with a group of vulnerable young people and always appreciate the stop over at the Café.

Jason

And further news of the meetings of Cllr Young...

The Essex County Cllr on Friday is meeting Andrew Nightingale, Director of Estates at Essex County Council (and former Estates Manager at the University) and Vincent Pearce, Principle Planning Officer at Colchester Borough Council to discuss plans to close Quayside Cafe.

Moira

Andrew Nightingale is Director of Estates at the Uni, not at ECC.

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