Latest News
Centros Back with More of the Same - 22 April 08
IOC attended the consultation workshop meeting with Centros last Thursday, where they presented their amended plans. Very little has changed - the scheme is still retail led, and the multistorey car park, the bridge over Stonewell and the Debenhams remain. The heights have been lowered on Stonewell and near the canal, and there is more residential (flats) opposite Alfred St. Oh, and there is now (another) new supermarket for Lancaster, probably a Booths. The new Centros briefing document is available here, and notes from this meeting are available here.
Centros Pull Out of Dumfries - 15 April 08
BBC News reports that Centros have shelved a major redevelopment of Dumfries town centre. Centros cited the global credit crunch as affecting UK retail markets, meaning that the projected valuation of the scheme had fallen significantly.
Centros Back in Town - 15 April 08
It's Our City will attend a 'consultation workshop meeting' with Centros on Thurs 17th April, at which we expect them to unveil their new plans - details of which we have not received. Other 'stakeholders' at the meeting will be Lancaster Police, Chamber of Commerce, Civic Society, Lancaster Canal Trust and Lancaster and Morecambe Vision Board.
We will send out details of the new plans as soon as we have them - watch this space!
Changes to Centros Plans - 5 Feb 08
Late last month the Bulk Ward councillors met with planning officer Andrew Dobson for an update on Centros Miller’s plans. We understand that the following issues were discussed at this meeting. Please be aware, however, that this was an informal meeting between the Ward Councillors and Mr Dobson. Points under discussion included:
* There are significant problems with the original traffic assessment carried out by Centros and the Council have asked other traffic consultants to review any new traffic work by Centros.
* Retail consultants White Young Green are not happy with Centros’ retail study and the planning office does not think that it demonstrates the need for so much extra retail.
* Centros appears to have floated the possibility of removing the bridge linking with St. Nicholas Arcade in response to concerns from English Heritage and others. The planning office is concerned that without the bridge very few people will cross from the canal corridor development to the existing city centre.
In light of these problems and current economic circumstances, Centros Miller are rethinking the whole design concept and details of their plans. This will result in a substantially revised application in May 2008 followed by a further period of consultation.
* The new plan would include a 40,000 sq feet new food store occupied by Booths which will be on the lower car park with a frontage on St Leonardsgate and going up to the Grand.
* Debenhams would move to the opposite end of the site almost fronting on Moor Lane
* The road layout and layout of the square would change
* The streets now would become "eclectic streets" with more small shops
* The height of the whole development would be reduced to the minimum or below the minimum in the original plans
As we said, this is a statement of latest thinking, not a firm set of proposals. But we will let you know as soon as we hear anything more.
Centros Miller: The Current Situation - 22 Nov 07
The campaign is quiet at the moment as six months have now passed since Centros Miller submitted its planning applications. Some of the numerous objections to the Centros plans can be viewed on the council website in the form of pdf documents. Click on the Associated Documents tab to see the list of documents. Unfortunately the council web site does not conform to established web standards which means that only those using the Internet Explorer browser and some other web browsers will be able to see the documents. Users of FireFox and other browsers will be disappointed.
The original schedule was for the planning committee to meet in September 2007 to determine the council's attitude to the proposed development. However, the traffic and retail impact assessments produced by Centros Miller were trashed by the council's independent consultants. The chief planning officer made it clear that officers could not at that point (mid-July) support the development as proposed, mainly (but not exclusively, we understand) because of these adverse reports. Centros Miller is supposed to have set about negotiating away the problems to produce new submissions. The likely date for this re-submission seems to be receding ever further into the future.
Centros Miller has held some meetings over recent months with planning officers to discuss evolution of the scheme, but we understand that Centros Miller itself has cancelled the two most recent scheduled meetings.
The official response this week to our enquiries of the planning officer responsible for the case was as follows:
“The schedule for re-submission is of course entirely in Centros' own hands. We are advised by them that amended/new plans and assessments may be forthcoming shortly after Christmas, although there are no fixed dates. I'm sorry I can't be any more specific than that - clearly Centros are working on the resubmissions as we speak.”
Unofficial comments suggest that it may be even later than January; and that from Centros Miller’s point of view, the re-drafting of the traffic impact assessment is causing most difficulty.
There will be another period of consultation (a period of 21 days) once Centros Miller has made its re-submissions. All previous objectors will be contacted directly by the planning office to this effect once the documents have been received.
Cabinet decision on Lawson's field called in - 30 Oct 07
Lancaster City Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee have called in the decision taken by the Council Cabinet to begin marketing Lawson's field for a probable supermarket development. The Committee will meet at 5.30 p.m. on 31st October at Morecambe Town Hall. If you have time to attend this meeting or to write to the Chair of the Committee, Stuart Langhorn, our councillors will be under no illusions as to the strength of opposition to these plans.
New Supermarket in Lancaster? - 9 Oct 07
Once again Lancaster City Council are planning to sell off OUR land for development without consultation. This time the Council wants to sell a greenfield site on the A6 to a supermarket, probably Tesco. The Council Cabinet met on Tuesday 9th October 2007 to make a decision. IOC were at the meeting - read our report here.
Letter to Council Party Leaders - 26 Sept 07
The IOC strategy group today wrote to the leaders of the political groups, and the Free Independent Councillors on Lancaster City Council. A copy of the letter has been posted in the council section of our archive. Previously, councillors on the Planning Committee have claimed that they cannot discuss the development with IOC as it may expose them to charges of bias but a recent August 2007 publication from the Standards Board clarifies the issues of Predisposition, Predetermination or Bias, and the Code. This means that councillors on Planning Committee no longer have a valid reason for avoiding discussion of the issues with constituents. We await their responses with interest.
Update on letter to Council Party Leaders - 22 Nov 07
So far, members of the IOC strategy group have met with the Lib Dems, and will be meeting with the Conservative group in December. Some of the Free Independent Councillors have also responded. As yet, we have had no response from either the Labour Group or the Morecambe Bay Independents.
New Anti-Centros Campaign
An anti Centros campaign has started up in Wells, yet another historic city which has been targeted by a rapacious new Centros Miller partnership.
'Save Wells' had their first public meeting last night (22 August) with over 400 people attending so they are off to a good start. Gone are the days when Centros could slither into town unnoticed!
Check out the 'Save Wells' campaign group website for more details and please sign their e-petition (link on their main menu) to show your support.