Consultation

We must be very wary of any public consultation process, and the way that consultation results are used. Centros Miller have exercised their typical disingenuity in the results published in their April 2007 Public Consultation on the Development Proposals by including almost exclusively the more positive (and obviously uninformed) letters they have received but mainly incoherent and angry negative responses such as those scrawled on leaflets.

The reasoned views that have been presented to Centros Miller by It's Our City and others are barely represented at all.

The Consultation Process

• January 2006 - Centros Miller's Residents Survey - The response of the residents of Alfred St next to the development site were excluded from the residents survey.
• 25 Jul 06 - Complaint from Cllr Barry to Council CEO regarding councillors being kept in the dark
• 8 Aug 06 - Reply from Council Regeneration Director to Cllr Jon Barry
• 16 Aug 06 - Reply from Cllr Jon Barry to Council Regeneration Director
• 5 Oct 2006 - Council Leader Ian Barker Replies to Questions from residents
• 18 Oct 2006 - More Council Leader Ian Barker Replies to Questions from residents
• October/November 2006 - Centros Miller Update Meetings - These meetings were updates on the Centros plans rather than consultation.
• 29 Nov 06 - Minutes of a working party with Centros Miller at Pizza Margerhita

Relevant Documents

• The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Section 106 allows councils to insist on such things as car free housing and more community facilities in new developments. IOC's efforts to get the council to take advantage of this to get a better deal from Centros Miller have fallen on deaf ears.
• Jan 2006 - Planning Delivery Agreements Report - (1.8MB pdf - 48 pages) by ATLAS (Advisory Team for Large Applications). This report concerns the relatively new Fast Track Planning system introduced by the government to make it easier for developers to get their plans through. It requires a developer to engage in public consultation but as we have seen, Centros Miller pays lip service to this requirement as a box ticking exercise. It seems that Centros Miller and Lancaster Council have taken their definition of 'consultation' from Ambrose Pierce's Devils Dictionary published 1896-1906. Namely: consult (verb) 'To seek anothers approval of a course of action already decided on'.
• In 2003 a local group called 'Real Planning for Lancaster' carried out a public consultation on what local people would like to see done with the Canal Corridor site. The results showed a strong opposition to large retail development and increased traffic congestion. Their well presented 10 page report (pdf file 545KB) is comprehensive compared to the superficial Centros Miller City Centre Visitors Survey of Jan 2006. The Council cabinet completely ignored the residents survey carried out by Centros Miller in January 2006 which didn't fit in with their plans to force the development through whatever the public wants.
• The Dept for Communities & Local Government issues Planning Policy Ststements which set out planning policy local authorities should follow on a number of issues.

Consultation FAQ

1. Why is consultation an essential part of any development of CCN?
2. Do you think that Centros consultation has been appropriate/adequate?
3. Do CMs plans reflect the results of consultation?
4. Are there any examples of what constitutes “good” consultation?
5. So is Centros miller interested in genuine consultation?

On a Lighter Note

A special edition of 'The Really Heavy Greatcoat'. The entire collection can now be found online at Down the Tubes.