It’s Our City calls on LCC to abandon Centros public inquiry

It’s Our City are surprised that at a time of budget cuts across the board, including £54,000 cut from the children and young people’s budget, Lancaster City Council is intending to spend £50,000, or more, of public money, on defending a scheme to which the developer is no longer committed.

It’s Our City had every confidence that we would be successful at the Public Inquiry in stopping this scheme,  before Centros pulled out. 

However, It’s Our City now call on Lancaster City Council to abandon their support for the Centros plans. The chief planning officer, Andrew Dobson, may still believe that this scheme is “robust” but the government obviously disagrees, or it would not have decided that its “robustness” needs to be tested at a public inquiry. It’s Our City has spent two and a half years planning for a public inquiry and the planning inspectorate has granted us the same status as the council and English Heritage to present the case for the local community and to cross-examine witnesses. We’re ready, at no cost to the taxpayer.

As Mr. Dobson has pointed out, it is without precedent for a council to defend plans at a public inquiry when the developer has chosen not to appear. Centros has left the council high and dry. This is a golden opportunity for Lancaster City Council to give up on this outdated scheme and instead to work on new plans for the Canal Corridor which are appropriate for Lancaster, and which have been developed with the full and genuine involvement of the local community.  The economy, and national planning policy, have moved on. It’s time for the city council to move on with them; and to put the money earmarked for lawyers and consultants back into the budget, to be spent where it’s needed.