Post 87 – 11/05/25 – Your Community Needs You | Save The Date – Saturday 14th June

Over the last few weeks some of us have been meeting to discuss whether or not to stage  some events at Royal Holloway, similar to the ones of last year.

The outcome of those meetings was that we think it would be beneficial….

The date to save for your diary is Saturday 14th June. As last year, the date coincides with Royal Holloway’s Open Day for prospective students.

More details about the events planned will follow in the coming weeks. (If you would like to get involved with the planning of these events please drop me a line).

In the meantime, we thought we would take this opportunity to explain how we came to this decision.

1. Last year’s events were a success. Today the local community is in the best position that it has been with Royal Holloway in a long time – our representatives are currently engaged in a series of meetings with Royal Holloway and other stakeholders to try to find solutions to the problems caused by Royal Holloway’s poorly planned growth. EG Parking, Accommodation, ASB etc. Royal Holloway coming to the table was achieved, in part, by last year’s events.

2. However, we are not past the line yet and it sometimes feels that we have been here before. For those that have followed WNTTARH over the last couple of years, many of you will know that in 2023, Prof. Tracy Bhamra, catching wind that we were going to organise a demonstration, reached out. (This was after she ignored a written request, emails and phone calls.) In light of her reaching out, we cancelled our event as a gesture of goodwill. In the meeting that was subsequently arranged, she explained that over the summer, she and her team would look at measures to mitigate the impact of the university on the community. In the autumn, we chased her to establish what measures they would deliver only to find out that the extent of mitigations was to go no further than to update the students’ welcome pack. We learnt a lesson there.

3. If we don’t organise another event, Royal Holloway may believe that their problem (local residents) has gone away. We think continuing to be visible will remind them that we haven’t and that many residents are every bit as dissatisfied as ever with the Senior Leadership Team’s (SLT) management.

4. Many of the problems are worse than ever. EG Parking. The streets in the immediate proximity to campus taking the brunt of the pressure as Royal Holloway markets itself to a commuter market whilst not considering its parking provision and public transport limitations. This has led to residents arguing amongst themselves as to the best way forward. See Facebook group, Englefield Greenies.

5. Momentum. If we don’t organise an event this year, we may begin to lose some of our momentum, something that may be difficult to build back up. The idea from the outset was to increase the pressure – taking our foot off now may not be in our interest in the long run.

6. SLT Behaviour. Today, we feel that there are no tangible signs of a change in behaviour from Royal Holloway’s SLT. The planning application to change the use of George Elliot Hall is one example. This application was not raised with the communities’ representatives despite its obvious impact on the community. We think this is really insightful as to their mindset. Similarly, Kingswood Hall was closed quietly (with the loss of over 400 student beds) with no thought given to the impact this closure would have on the community. (I will save you from reading again the list of negative impacts high densities of HMOs can have on a community.) If Royal Holloway did take their mantra, ‘We take being a good neighbour seriously’, they would have behaved differently. As a side note, rumours have it that some of the SLT would like the residents to ‘get back into their box’ and to return to the ‘old days’. (Basically, returning to a period where they continue to grow unchallenged.) These rumours, if true, are quite a contradiction to the warm tones portrayed by Executive Director of Student Journey, Nick Barratt, about Royal Holloway’s willingness to engage with the local community in last year’s BBC Surrey Radio interview. This in its own right is a good reason not to ease the pressure. At the moment, it would appear that the only people they care for are themselves.

7. Last year’s events were empowering. Those that attended felt positive that they were able to express their dissatisfaction and that their action helped towards achieving our goal: for Royal Holloway to come to the table in a meaningful way.

So that is most of the thinking – organising some events is the right thing to do. We recognise that discussions are proceeding and we hope that they are successful. But until Royal Holloway acknowledges the communities’ concerns and facilitates the delivery of mitigations with demonstrative improvement, we think it is sensible to continue to apply pressure.

Best wishes,

We Need To Talk About Royal Holloway

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