In late September, you were probably expecting hordes of freshers to be piling out of their parents’ cars into the City Gateway Building. But not one was to be seen. On October 2nd, The Echo and BBC explained why. The developers had failed to meet the August 1st completion deadline, although they achieved practical completion by 14th August. The University exercised their right not to take on the lease from August 2014 and plan to do so from August 2015. In May 2012, the University of Southampton entered into an agreement for a thirty year lease on completion of the building. The owners of the site are West Cheshire and Chester Borough Council.
Happily, a new granite plinth arrived on schedule near the end of July and the memorial plaque to Herbert Collins was reinstalled in the garden in front of Market Buildings, together with an information board.
