Editorial: This week’s building work disaster shows off City at its impertinent worst

Earlier this week The Square revealed the university’s unfinished main entrance will be delayed by three months. City officials yesterday hit out at our article with a revelation of their own – they did indeed send out an email to students telling them the main entrance will be ready in December.

For this, we apologise. But the email in question got two things very wrong.

Firstly, what appears to be a technical fault meant that few students received it at all and of those that did, many found it had gone straight into their clutter box.

But the crucial error was in the enigmatic email’s content.

This is what the university said about the delayed project:

“When you arrive at Northampton Square you will see lots of building work underway. This is to construct a new main entrance and a 240-seat lecture theatre, both set to be completed by December 2016.”

No mention of the fact that this is a three-month delay, no mention of the reason as to why the project is facing such a setback – and, worst of all, no attempt whatsoever to apologise to students.

The Square has learnt that the email that went out to staff at a similar time also failed to mention that the delay had been caused by a sinkhole – even though the hole was still visible at that time.

But the most bizarre part of the whole thing is that the sinkhole was nobody’s fault – neither the university or the construction company Morgan Sindall initially did anything wrong.

Yet City still acted as if something needed to be covered up.

This must stop. It’s high time the university treated its staff and students with the respect they deserve.

City has refused to apologise for the inconvenience caused, as the delay is not the direct fault of the university.

But that isn’t the point.

An apology does not have to be an admission of guilt. More a sign that the establishment takes seriously the wellbeing of the people it serves – the people who pay £9,000 a year for that service.

The Square will continue to report the stories that matter to you, in the way that you want to hear them – without the PR spin.

We hope this will be with the backing and support of the university. But if not, so be it.