Summary of answers to the question “What is bad about Durham City?”
The most frequent comments are listed in descending order of popularity, i.e. most popular are at top – the ones starred are particularly recurrent.
***Excessive student housing (much poorly maintained and unsympathetically altered)
**North Road (tawdry and dirty, run down, focus for anti-social behaviour, charity shops, poor introduction to City for visitors)
**Poor retail offer (of both small, independent traders and big names), empty shops
**Pedestrian experience (e.g. poor maintenance of pavements, dirty, lack of curbs, lack of street lighting, hills, traffic and pollution, overhanging vegetation, cluttering with rubbish bins, bill boards, tables and chairs, not suitable for disabled or people with pushchairs, material (cobbles), more bridges and crossing points of river and A690)
**Planning decisions (inappropriate, unsuitable for a World Heritage Site, ignoring residents’ views, poor implementation of control, lack of cohesion / gulf between University and Council, vested interests)
**Traffic congestion
**Night-time economy (too geared to drinking, encouraging anti-social behaviour)
*Littering (including riverbanks)
Market Place (poor redevelopment)
Parking (lack of spaces, location, cost, park & ride needs improvement)
Poor design of new, modern build developments (e.g. Prince Bishops, Gates, 60s and 70s developments)
Millennium Place (bleak, unwelcoming, underutilised, lack of greenery)
Loss of / lack of open and green spaces and threat to green belt
Student behaviour
Lack of tourist information centre
Lack of housing for local residents/unbalanced community
Road system and traffic management
Poor appearance/maintenance of premises and streetscape
Lack of City Council
