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00:00The cash-strapped University of Kent is paying £7,000 a month on a student bar which served
00:07its last drink more than five years ago.
00:10The former cargo bar unit in Liberty Quays in Gillingham is believed to be setting back
00:16the uni which is making staff redundant due to debts and falling student numbers £84,000
00:23a year.
00:24It says it shut the bar due to a lack of financial viability and that it is looking into alternative
00:31uses.
00:32But students living in Liberty Quays say the money should be better spent.
00:36I think it makes me very upset, you know, I mean, nothing's going on inside here, you
00:41know what I mean?
00:42Give it to people in need, people that need it right now, you know?
00:44I think it should be put in better places, you know, maybe, I don't know, maybe student
00:49events, you know, maybe some encouragement here and there, you know?
00:53Maybe give it to charities, you know, better options, better options.
00:56I definitely think that they should put the students at the forefront of their, you know,
01:02their thinking and although maybe this was maybe a good call once upon a time, it may
01:07no longer be the best use of the money, so they definitely should think about the students
01:11who need the money more, so yeah.
01:14Did you know the cargo bar existed before you had a chat with me?
01:17Honestly I didn't, I honestly didn't and the fact that it's actually that much money to
01:20something that's not that popular or well known around the area, for me, you know, speaks
01:25to its importance and stuff like that.
01:28So you guys spend a lot of money on tuition fees, how does it make you feel that a chunk
01:34of that money is being spent on something that hasn't been opened since 2019?
01:37How does it make you feel about your money basically going into that?
01:42Well, not happy, of course, you know, landlines quite a lot, what, most of it goes to the
01:46rent, not most of it, you know what I mean, a chunk goes to the rent for that empty building.
01:51Maybe they're opening up for something that would be nice, yeah?
01:53Yeah, no, I agree, it's a lot of our money and, you know, we are going to be in debt
01:58by the end of it and I'd rather that money goes to something that would be useful rather
02:02than something that's just been shut the entire time.