City centre set for £3.6m revamp

A vision of how Ironmonger Square will look at night

Coventry city centre is set for a £3.6m revamp which would see the creation of a new public square.

Plans to transform Ironmonger Row and the Burges are set to be approved by Coventry City Council next week.

The council said cafes and restaurants would "be encouraged to open" around the new Ironmonger Square.

Councillor Kevin Foster said the area would be "transformed into somewhere people can feel safe and where they want to shop rather than avoid".

Mr Foster, cabinet member for city development, said the Burges had been neglected and allowed to decay for "too many years".

"The Burges is one of the few remaining parts of our city to survive the bombing and post-war reconstruction and we are determined that it will once again take its place at the heart of our city centre," he said.

The site of the new square, at the back of the Primark building, is where a market stood more than 900 years ago.

Focal point

During consultation locals had told the council that the area would benefit from a "new public art" but people did not want the Lady Godiva statue or the Coventry Cross moved, he added.

Another public consultation will be carried out to find the focal point of the new development.

Work was also under way to see if it was feasible to completely pedestrianise the Burges, the council added.

The council's cabinet is set to approve the plans at a meeting next Tuesday.