About It's Our City
'IT'S OUR CITY' is a group of Lancaster residents who came together when the current proposals to develop the Canal Corridor area were announced.
The City Council's 'preferred developer', Centros Miller, are currently submitting planning applications as part of a major retail development planned for the canal corridor north site based on a 100,000 square feet plus department store (Debenham's) and a multi-storey car park on the existing car parks between St Leonards Gate and Edward Street.
They also propose to build a footbridge from the new development, over Stonewell, which will land somewhere in the St Nicholas shopping arcade.
IT'S OUR CITY is opposed to this proposed development on the following grounds:
- There will be a worsening of the general traffic chaos in and around the City. Centros Miller say that they can sort out Lancaster's traffic problems by bringing more cars into the City to feed their new several storey department store!
- Residential roads in freehold and neighbouring wards will become even worse 'rat runs' than they are now as the development involves the permanent closure of Edward Street at one end, on top of a general increase in traffic in the City.
- In the context of the dozens of empty retail units that there are already in the City, Centros Miller are proposing to build more empty retail units around their new department store. They claim that this will help to fill the shop units which currently stand empty in the City Centre!
- It seems inevitable that far from becoming an extension to the existing City Centre this development would become an alternative and competing City Centre, closing down more of the City's independent retailers and producing more empty shop units. The future viability of the indoor Market itself will be at stake as people are drawn toward the new City Centre. Experience of other developments around the country supports this outcome.
- To build the footbridge from the new development Centros Miller proposes to demolish several buildings at Stonewell. This includes flats where people currently live and the post office building. See the current planning applications for more information.
- The proposed development will see the effective privatisation of a huge area of our City as the Council will lease the entire area to Centros Miller for over 200 years. Centros Miller have already said that private security guards will patrol the development and that security cameras will be fitted throughout.
- Since Centros Miller became the City Council's preferred developer, by some secretive process that has never been explained, they claim to have been involved in a 'consultation process' with local people. ITS OUR CITY is of the view that the whole consultation process has been designed to demonstrate that local people want a department store and a multi-storey car park at the heart of any development on this site. In their public discussions Centros Miller have pushed the view that only a retail led development of this site is possible. IT'S OUR CITY takes a different view.
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