Grandé opening of new Westwood café

Following feedback from both students and staff, Café Westwood and Costcutter Westwood are going to be replaced at the end of this term with a new cafe.

The current café is due to close on Friday 18 March, the last day of term, and the new establishment is due to open on 3 May 2011. This new café will be managed by the Compass group, unlike Café Humanities and Café Library. Costcutter Westwood will cease trading upon the opening of the new restaurant.

As the refurbishments will take place over the Easter vacation, they should cause minimum disruption, but this also means that students who either reside or study at Westwood during this time will have to use other food outlets, the nearest of which is situated in University House.

Kate Cox, from the University Communications Office said that: “For some time now, the feedback provided through groups such as the Staff Student Liaison group has told us that people felt the café’s facilities were tired, out-dated and in need of refurbishment, particularly when you compare them to other campus retail outlets.”

With regards to the disruption to students and staff, she added that: “Only access to the café itself will be restricted; Costcutter will remain open for business as usual”. Also, it is anticipated that “the refurbishment will take approximately six weeks” and as soon as they know, people will be informed via the usual channels.

Most of the students to whom the Boar spoke agreed with the change. “I do not mind too much if it is closed for a short time if it will be a lot better afterwards,” said one student who frequently uses Westwood café during long periods on campus.

However, another student added: “Having never used either the Costcutter or the current cafe, it’s debatable as to whether it’s worth refurbishing. If there are enough people using it then that’s fine, but I don’t know anyone who does. Refurbishing or buying more appliances for the accommodation we live in would be a much better idea.”

Presumably because the annoucement has just been published on the Warwick website, many students said that they were not aware that the developments were going to take place and – even residents of Westwood had not been involved in providing the feedback which has prompted this refurbishment.

“To my knowledge there hasn’t been any sort of questionnaire or feedback regarding the current cafe, Costcutter or the new café,” said Emma Lemont, a first year French student.

“I did participate in [a survey] about general Warwick food outlets including Westwood, but it wasn’t specifically about Westwood café,” said Emma Knight, also a first year who is currently living in Westwood.

The cost of these renovations, though said to be a “substantial figure”, according to Kate Cox, has yet to be revealed.