Places - CovScape

Coventry is the 11th biggest city in the UK, but we’re 47th in terms of the number and range of shops we have here.

Coventry City Council, plus three private sector partners, has appointed international architects the Jerde Partnership to completely redesign huge swathes of the city centre to improve its shopping, office space and nightlife.

It’s the biggest city centre development in Coventry for 50-years and it will see the number of shops more than doubled by the year 2026.

The plans are still very much in their infancy, and we at BBC Coventry & Warwickshire want all our listeners and website users to get involved from the outset.

With Jerde Associate Vice President David Sheldon

Throughout February we’re doing a whole host of programming where we’re looking at all aspects of the regeneration process – from talking to the architects themselves, to examining what Coventry’s rival shopping cities have to offer.

We’ve also launched this lovely new section of our website, which will be a permanent fixture on our site for the next few years, and where you’ll be able to find regular updates on the project, and view the plans as they grow and change.

First things first, the Jerde Partnership is being instructed at the beginning of March, and that means we’ve only got until the end of February to influence their design for the city.

So if you’ve got an opinion, let me know about it! Do you want to flatten Coventry Cathedral? Preserve the Broadgate Canopy for future generations? Bulldoze Medieval Spon Street? Or maybe your ideas are a bit more sensible…

There are lots of ways you can get involved – follow our links to the city council’s consultation website, call our CSV Action Desk on 0845 900 5 300, pop into the open centre and fill in a brief form, or just come along and have a chat with me - I’m Hannah Murdoch and I’m coordinating CovScape for BBC Coventry & Warwickshire - and I’d love to hear what you have to say…