UKC

There appears to be a proposal to start charging for car parking after 18:00 weekdays and at weekends.  Currently this is free.  It will also affect users of the Sports Hub.  

Paying by Direct Debit may allow free parking, but this option is not suitable for all users.

The following link can be used to give feedback.

https://warwick.ac.uk/services/carparks/parkingconsultation2019?fbclid=IwAR...

The university's commercial director Rupert Lawrie is on a mission to squeeze every penny out of the student population and those who have no choice but to use University facilities. He is ultimately responsible for leaning on Lisa Dodd-Mayne at Warwick Sport who leans on centre manager Alan Jephcott who has instituted the widely unpopular changes to sports centre pricing (introducing peak/off peak hours, forcing climbing club members to pay them £60 even if they climb at the Ballroom instead, jacking up student membership by £50 a year, and adding a new £8 registration fee, which was supposed to fund new hold purchases, though this promise has been broken), as well as changing the opening hours so the wall opens at 10:30 instead of with the rest of the centre. They tried to implement this change to parking hours last year but there was such an outcry during the consultation that they have waited until this year to try again, hoping that fatigue will have set in and that this time students and users will just accept the University taking the piss. The only thing that matters is getting more money in the University's accounts so they can justify higher salaries for the senior management. Even if there is enough pushback this time Rupert & co will just re-introduce it again next year.

I love the way it's called a consultation......just like consulting over the plans for the new wall when they had already made their minds up on what we users "wanted".

wtf has this got to do with climbing? Get over to walls and training

Perhaps you can't see that charging for both car parking and admission to the climbing wall,  which is in the Sports Hub, makes visiting it several times a week a costly investment. Particularly as some of us have to drive a long way just to get there in the first place. In many cases public transport does not exist either.

I suspect wealthier climbers can't see the problem.

I think what leyland stamper is cack handedly saying is that you have posted in the wrong, sub-forum. Not that it isn't a legitimate concern.

I must admit, I hadn't even realised there was a walls and training sub-forum. I assumed that logo was an artist's palette and must be for discussion of paintings.

To address the actual substance of the post. One point I'd like to make is that Warwick University campus now covers a huge area, spreading South West from the edge of Coventry. Public transport links are to the Northern edge - the centre of the academic university. The sports hub has been built on the extreme South West tip, on a loop road of student residences, an extra mile or so further out than the old Bear Rock. Claims that this is about nudging people to use public transport to save the planet ring a bit hollow when the recent expansion of the university is sprawling low-rise built on green belt land.

I think you'll find that less wealthy members of society have neither car to worry about or yearly subscription to a climbing wall. Well done for noticing public transport does exist though. Now talk rock or get off over to walls.

There's no need to be a dick about this.  If it really offends you so much that this thread is in the wrong sub-forum click the "!Report" button at the top or bottom of the page and ask the mods to move it.

You have a problem with me using my left hand?Take care with your use of words.

As I a left hander myself I’m quite happy to use that term to refer to your poor use of the language.

Apologies. I hadn't realised you had a self esteem issue.

Success. I do apologise If I have upset any car parking fanatics( and I clearly have). 

Plenty of buses at Warwick uni for shipping the students around to the local towns. Anybody who goes to Warwick will know that. 
 

Yes, I do know that, I live nearby and have been going to Warwick wall (both old and new) and Arts Centre for many years, 20+. As I explained, the public transport links are to the city (NE) side of the campus. The new sports building is on former green-belt land on the extreme SW corner. 

I'm in the lucky position that I can cycle there and I could just about walk to the old Bear Rock. Honestly, I don't fancy either of those options on a rainy winter night - I suppose that makes me a climate criminal and all-round bad person. 

It's a shame that what started as an innocuous post hi-lighting a consultation exercise about pricing changes at a popular climbing wall has turned into virtue signalling about the evils of rich car users (there's a new, even broader, definition of the undeserving "elite") and bizarre trolling about left-handedness and posting in the wrong sub-forum.

However, as usual, none of these will be any good for people coming from outside of (in this case) Warwick University.

Well plenty of buses from Coventry and Leamington.every 10 minutes.

pretty easy.

But they don't go new the wall do they? Especially at night time.

We stopped going because of car park charges, so that's around about 8-12 people once or twice a week.

The wall is boring and lacks good route setting, making it a straight up and down climbing.

We now go to Northampton and Milton Keynes, Northampton is one of the best walls I've ben to for interesting climbing and challenging routes, you have to think about how your going to climb them.

I think recently there's a car park which is free nearby, but it sounds like this may change from what you've written.

Its hardly a long walk

Brings it in line with everywhere else.

I can fill in the survey if you want... but I'd be saying it sounds ok to me.

I'm confused - I am sure I was paying for parking all evening when it first opened? It was a major reason we stopped going and made the Ballroom our default; they had increased the cost, charged for parking and registration was a pain in the arse for new users. I don't recall a joining fee though.

What's this about charging even if you go to the Ballroom?

Firstly, as has been said already, they don't go to the new Wall, especially at night.

Secondly, those coming from outside the area would need to find somewhere close to the bus route to park their car prior to waiting for the bus. This would inevitably involve a nuisance for those living close to the bus stop, and extra motoring for those leaving their cars, and this is assuming the area in question is safe to leave unattended cars for a few hours, and also that climbers leave the Wall in time to traipse whatever distance back to the bus stop in time so as not to miss the last bus.

Basically all very messy, and underlines the fact that it hasn't been thought out very well.

Warwick Sport have strong-armed the Warwick Uni Student's Union into charging all students who wish to join a sports club £56.50, even if the student has no intention of ever using any Warwick Sport facilities. This is in addition to the £32 the Student's Union charges every student who wishes to join a club, as well as the £6 to actually join the club. So £94.50 in order to become a member of the club which is required in order to go on club trips, receive lessons from the committee, or compete in BUCS. Many strong and keen climbers, including a large portion of the competitive squad, have not been willing to pay this much, especially when they use the superior facilities available at the Ballroom. This has knock on effects as experienced climbers are strongly disincentivised from joining, especially if they have their own cars, with predictable consequences on the transfer of knowledge between cohorts, the mentoring of beginner climbers, and having enough drivers to safely run club trips.

Please see the link below for evidence of these costs. If you do want to use the Warwick Sports Hub then you need to fork out an additional £200 for an annual membership to the climbing wall. https://www.warwicksu.com/societies-sports/sports-clubs/climbing/#org-join

(For every £94.50 a club member pays to the SU/Warwick Sport, the club receives less than £6 back in funding, this is a separate issue though it is indicative of how the SU and the Warwick Sport exist primarily to extract money from students in order to justify high salaries for senior staff.)

I think my daughter who goes 2/3 times on a week on the bus might disagree with you there.

meeting her after work there tomorrow night. 

Personnally do not like the wall  it’s a bit limited all round and like a lot of modern walls neither a bouldering or leading wall .

a bit plane Jane .

The small car park next to the Sports centre was always pay and display. For a short period, probably before the student term restarted, a small nearby car park was free. No more.

The huge pay and display car park opposite the Sports centre, recently completed, is now open. Currently free 18:00-06:00 and at weekends. It's this one that the Uni are thinking of charging for all the time. It's this one we are being 'consulted' over. Yeah! Like the wall!

<What's this about charging even if you go to the Ballroom?

No idea what that is about. Someone else's post. Maybe they think paying for both, whether you use them or not, is too expensive. 

Some walls do have a registration fee, Warwick is a piss take at £8, and some an annual one too.

Hope some of this helps. 

Have to agree with you there.

Did you know Milton Keynes (Big Rock) has two excellent centres? Kingston and Bletchley.

Northampton is good too, But very cold mid winter( wear a jersey then), and it needs more lighting. Honestly. I found it hard to differentiate colours on routes too similar and close together.

Sadly ALL much better than Warwick Sports centre, which is a tad boring for me.  

A long walk from where?

We're in Oxfordshire, so it's quite along walk, especially after a days work.

Yes we've been to both but Bletchley is closest and has the better routes, we think.

we climb to keep warm

The lighting is poor and the whole place looks a bit shoddy to be honest, but that's more than made up for by their imaginative and thoughtful route setting. After years of Old Warwick (which was great) and Oxford Brookes most of our club much prefer N'ampton so much so, we've dropped Oxford and Warwick dropped themselves, with the new wall and extra charges.

A couple of people went up a few weeks ago and said it was a bit better then it used to be, but not that much.

Where will you park?

I can drive either 6 miles to Leamington or 6 miles to Coventry to take the bus, which do I choose?

Or I could drive 5 miles direct to the Sports Hub

But whereabouts does she live ? (rhetorical question - no need to really know) If near to the bus service then access is presumably easy, but if 10 miles or more away then it's a different matter.

Pay and display then.

I will no longer go to the Warwick Uni Wall because of the changes made, both to the Wall and the parking. No longer any joy in it for me.

From the bus stop to the sports centre.

Not sure the design  would have factored in visitors from Oxfordshire. Positively ignored I would have thought.

I'm not sure much was factored in except the designer's idea of a pretty building

As near as I can get to the reception door as I live in Warrington.Just in Coventry tomorrow for the day at MTC.

I do agree that its an average wall.

Just not sure that all the non students should be kicking off about using what is a student facility.After all its not really aimed at the likes of you and me.

Daughter lives in leamington which is about 8 miles away.Buses every 10 minutes to the Uni, and its a realtively short walk to the centre from the main bus stop.Which is why I do not understand everybody moaning about buses.

Shauna Croxsey trains there...so its cannot be  that bad...

Superb gym, have you had a look round....

The design is the same as most modern Uni sports facilites. A box with playing fields.

So you'll have to pay, maybe you don't care or have loads of money, but it means we're paying £15.50 for a mildly interesting climb when we can pay £8.50 for quality climbing and travel the same distance.

It doesn't make much difference to us as we have to travel to climb anywhere, it just so happens it about the same travel time to Cov, MK, Oxford or N'pton give or take 10 mins or so.

Wow, note this day down in the anals, "The Great Day of Agreement" It had to happen eventually

If you read the blurb for the hub, it was a "community" project, not just for the University, it was intended to get the wider community involved in sport, not just climbing, but sport as a whole.

And she can get home at 10pm from Cov?

Maybe it's a little elitist, I might be too common.

I can imagine it's a good wall for really hard climbers (sadly we're not), the comp. wall is quite big in comparison to the rest of the building, of which a massive amount is wasted by having a huge window / atrium (which also doesn't help with temperature regulation).

I am sure it was for the local community. I doubt very much they even bothered considering the likes of you and me. We are hardly part of that community , more hangers on  from outside.

In this day and age there are so many walls it’s hardly as though we are short of choice.

if the faculty suffers a shortfall in income as a result of its policy I am sure they will change. I suspect though like most modern walls , they will not notice the difference. 

The buses run pretty late for a campus to a main town which has lots of students living there. Think they run until 2 or 3 in the morning. So 10 pm is not an issue.it is a uni after all.  

Because it has the only Speed wall in England?

Thought they had one at Awesome in Sheffield.

The finish pad is too low, not by much, but the wall is therefore not an official Speed wall, so not much use for training for the likes of Shauna or Will.

Wow, I did not know that (I am not a student and never got membership there). There seems to be a tradition of Uni sports centres doing this sort of thing, I can only assume it is mentioned in some manual somewhere as a good way of getting funding. The new-ish Cambridge Uni sports centre wanted to charge every undergrad £50 a year through their College JCRs, in exchange for which those who signed up for membership would get a discount.

I decided the obvious solution to the poor/expensive Warwick wall was to move to Edinburgh which has some very nice walls.

Lucky sod having Ratho. 

I used to climb at North Berwick Law quarry, a lifetime ago before they half filled it in.