'Southside bar' saved!
The `Save Our Southside' campaign has successfully forced the relocation of Southside bar to the ground floor of Linstead hall. The future of Southside bar had been in jeopardy since it was announced that the replacement Southside building would not have sufficient space to accommodate a bar.
The College did originally suggest the relocation of the bar into an extended Linstead Hall bar. However, last year's Union President, Musta Arif, thwarted this plan stating that "it is unfair to leave Linstead students with no communal space".
College then gave Mr. Arif an ultimatum: either Southside bar be re-located into Linstead or all hall bars be closed. Mr. Arif choose the closure of all hall bars. He defended his decision, which came under sustained criticism by saying that "students are drinking less and the national trend is that bar profits are declining".
However, the 4,000 signatures collected by the Save Our Southside campaign show he misjudged public opinion somewhat.
Tobias Dalton, chairman of the campaign said, "This is great news. I would like to thank all those who signed the petition; and believe me, it did concern the College and made them take imperative action".
"I would also like to thank the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) who gave us a lot of support". Southside bar has been in contention for CAMRA awards for many years, in June 2005 it was awarded the runner-up award in CAMRA's `Club of the Year' competition.
However, not everyone is delighted with the news. Anthony Kucernak, Warden of Linstead hall said, "Linstead Hall students are sorry to see the loss of their dinning room to make way for the catering redevelopment. They are also upset and perplexed about the forced closure of their much loved Hall bar."
