Community Engagement Day, 14th May 2016



We had a good day, and talked to lots of people. We also encouraged people to complete our questionnaire. Joan Carter, Chair of southside Commuinty Council, has looked through the results, and here are her comments on what she saw.

42 local people, 24 of which have lived here over 20 years, responded to our questionnaire! About a dozen non-local people took part too. Most results were not surprising.

The most strongly held general concerns were with Rubbish, Housing and Road Condition. Within the Rubbish category, the strongest held concern is with overflowing bins. In Housing, it is both the amount of purpose built student housing and the lack of new affordable housing or housing suitable for the elderly. Many -probably most-of the additional comments are about housing and student housing.

People were most positive about Transport overall, with the bus service and traffic safety getting the most positive responses within that. The most negative response to our transport question was about parking.

It was interesting to see that quite a few people feel very positive about Purpose Built Student Accommodation too. Perhaps the most emotive issue?

There were lots of interesting comments and some good ideas. It was suggested: we take some responsibility for the pavement outside our homes/premises; introduce rent control; make a graffiti wall in the Tesco vennel; vastly increase parking charges; have more green spaces; have more pedestrian spaces; have more children’s play areas; have more kid’s dance classes; stop any more supermarkets; not allow maindoor flats to become HMOs- and much more! It was even suggested we should create the Republic of the Southside!

It was also clear that people like living in the Southside and are concerned for its future identity.

You can still complete our questionnaire here.