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Blog by Tom Langrish, Alcuin JCR Vice-Chair (Welfare & Support)
The Alcuin-Langwith Bridge is closed because it is unsafe for use. Goodricke-Vanbrugh Bridge is closed because it is unsafe for use. Please tell me what is to be achieved by calling for the immediate re-opening of two bridges that are a health risk? Nothing. You can call me a pessimist, you can call me defeatist but we are not getting our bridges back anytime soon.
Call me a pessimist, but we are not getting our bridges back anytime soon.
So what should we do? Should we just sit back and forget about our beloved bridges? Of course not, but we need to be realistic and focussed in our demands from the University. The primary aim at the moment should be getting a commitment from the University to improve the accessibility of the remaining routes around campus. I don’t have mobility problems, but for those that do, there are several ‘hot-spots’ which the University should see to, as soon as possible:
If the University has no immediate plans to repair the Goodricke-Vanbrugh Bridge (I have heard rumours of a £500k cost) or to replace the condemned Alcuin-Langwith Bridge, then they must commit to improving these and other routes.
Before I step down of my Soap Box, there are just a few more points I hope you will allow me to make. Although a frustration to Alcuin members like me, closing the Langwith Bridge does not make Alcuin an island. There are still multiple ways of getting to and from Alcuin. For those of you who have not yet tried them, may I recommend the recently refurbished Derwent to Chemistry Bridge or the visually superior, Library-Alcuin Bridge? I fully accept that some students do have a real need to get from one point on campus to the other as fast as possible, especially when having lectures or seminars back to back. If the bridge closures are causing you to be late for your studies, then please contact your department or your Student Representatives. If they give you no joy, contact YUSU.
Bridge closures are annoying and a problem that the University should have had the foresight to avoid, but there is little to be gained from stating what could or should have been done. We, as students, should focus on what needs to be done now. We should focus on ensuring that the immediate access problems on campus are sorted, before tackling the long-term issues of getting our beloved bridges re-opened.
But then again, that is just my opinion.
Why cant YUSU build a pontoon bridge with their barrels of empty promises?
The University is really good at building steps. I call for steps, steps everywhere for everyone.
good? good? six months for a set of steps is not good. if it takes that long to make steps IMAGINE how long it will take to make a new bridge...
£0.5M for the Goodricke-Vanbrugh bridge. Im graduating this year but if you pay me £40k a year, i will happily row people across. I'll even provide my own paddles!
I'm liking #4's suggestion. Perhaps Mad Cap'n Tom could make that one of his manifesto promises? Although it'd be a pirate ship, not a row boat, obviously.
RON
I completely and wholeheartedly take issue with the tone of this blog. I'm sorry, Tom Langrish, but students have every right to complain about the bridges as much as they damn well like. Nobody is asking that they reopen unsafe bridges. The complaint is the apparent lack of plans that the university has for how they are going to ensure that students, staff and conference guests alike can move around campus quickly and easily.
Second #7
We can complain as much as we like, but we can't make them listen. I've heard the Australian NUS has a national naming and shaming policy to publicise unis who neglect students continuously. I guess we have a survey at the end of uni, but it doesn't seem as effective.
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