onionbagblog

Disappointing news coming from our friends on campus at the University of Essex: the highly popular Quayside Cafe down at the Hythe is to be relocated to Wivenhoe Park. The University owns the building as part of the Quayside student complex. The lease to manage the facility is about to change hands. The University and the new leaseholders see no need in having the Quayside Cafe down by the banks of the Colne. It looks like the fine service offered to students, cyclists and walkers will come to an end sometime in late March.

The good news is that the two staff members at the Quayside Cafe have been reassured that their jobs are safe. The new leaseholders want to move the cafe on to campus, where coffee shops seem to be springing out of every corner of concrete slab right now. Sadly it means that the students that live in the Quayside accommodation will be losing their one space in which to enjoy a coffee or a light meal.

The official view from the University is that the Quayside Cafe is “making a loss.” Jenny Grinter, Head of Communications on campus states:

“It is correct that the Quayside Cafe will be closing at the end of this term, in March 2012, as it is making a loss and our priority is to invest in providing facilities for our students. The University is proposing to transform the space into a student common room for residents of our University Quays accommodation in time for the summer term. We recognise that this will be a disappointment to the small, but committed, number of cyclists and walkers using the Wivenhoe Trail, but we do need to prioritise our spending on the needs of our students.

Plans for the common room are still being finalised but the resident students will have access to vending machines, games (e.g. pool or table football) and internet access. We have consulted the Students’ Union and our staff at University Quays, and the cafe’s two staff will transfer to other outlets on campus.”

Cllr Julie Young of St Andrew’s ward adds:

“I am very disappointed that the University are removing this community facility that is used by walkers, cyclists and the large number of students at The Quays. The University is developing new social facilities as part of The Meadows Development but this is the other side of the Railway Line and in my opinion not convenient for the 800+ students that live at the Quays”.

The Meadows is the new student accommodation off Boundary Road that was granted initial planning permission by Colchester Borough Council only last week. The location of this - to the north of the Knowledge Gateway - is slightly off piste for any Wivenhoe Trail passing traffic.

The Knowledge Gateway may be many things to many people - a learning centre, an economic boost to the town, a money making machine for the University; sadly it is not a convenient en route stop off for any folk taking in the beauty of the Wivenhoe Trail and walking or cycling from Colchester out towards Wivenhoe.

Who wants to open up a tea van down by the Hythe…?