Public Spaces

Lancaster Council intends to sell the leasehold on the canal corridor north site for 250 years as part of the Centros deal. We believe that the sale of such a large chunk of prime public land in the centre of the city for such a long period is short-sighted. It also means that all the rights we enjoy on public land will be gone.

If the shopping centre fails which is always a possibility, we could end up with an eyesore in the city centre over which the council has no effective control and within which, the public has no rights.

The prohibition of busking or the right to demonstrate might not seem such a great loss to some, but it attacks fundamental freedoms which our forbears paid for dearly and will contribute to the clone town sterility which is dominating city centres around the country.

From one of Centros Miller's published plans it looks like every single tree on the entire site will be cut down.

Links

• What Kind of World are we Building? - This report by respected journalist Anna Minton on the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors website is key to understanding the ongoing debate on the private ownership of public space. You can also read a summary
• The Privatisation of Public Space - (38 page 380KB pdf file) - A 23 March 06 report by freelance journalist Anna Minton, a former Financial Times staffer journalist who specialises in social policy, and has won a series of national awards for her housing journalism. There is also a 4 (very short) page summary of the report called Space invaders.
• Building Balanced Communities: the US and UK compared - (39 page 407KB pdf file) - Another report (November 2002) by Anna Minton