Past Events

Lancaster Town Hall Public Meeting 10 July 06

The meeting was a great success with around 200 attending. Many thanks go to those who attended which made us aware of a groundswell of opposition to the ‘Canal Corridor North Development’ proposed by Centros Miller. The meeting was ably chaired by Brian Penney and speakers were Billy Pye of ‘Its Our City’ and transport consultant and traffic expert Prof John Whitelegg. Billy Pye spoke on behalf of city residents and covered the issues relevant to them as well as delivering a damning critique of the consultation process so far and John Whitelegg informed us about the likely impact of traffic resulting from the development folowing from his own analysis.

Many attending knew little or nothing about the proposed development and only realised that they would be affected by the resulting traffic after seeing the leaflets we put through their doors.

The Current Situation

Both Centros Miller and City Council planners continue to maintain that it is too early in the development process to think about traffic problems. As Prof Whitelegg’s talk suggested and common sense dictates, this question should be addressed now, before the development process continues and the Council makes commitments of public money. It will take more than fine words to deal with the traffic issue and is likely to be an extremely expensive proposition. Just two of the related issues involved are increased air pollution and congestion with their associated negative impact on public health and emergency service response times.

The so-called consultation process so far, has been less than satisfactory with Mr Bryson’s PR firm Halogen spinning the results to make it seem as if the people of Lancaster want this development, which is plainly Centros Miller’s expressed opinon rather than fact. If people were aware of the wide ranging implications of the development on their lives, this opinion would be a ludicrous claim, but as it is, it characterises the consultation process as a disingenuous ploy to hoodwink the people of Lancaster into believing that their city would be much better place to live.

What You Can Do Now

On July 25th, Lancaster City Council Cabinet is meeting to decide whether to sign up to a financial planning development agreement with Centros Miller. Our current goal is to stop this agreement being signed while the traffic issue remains on the sidelines. You can voice your objections by writing to one of the Cabinet Councillors well before July 25th. If your time is limited you will find a sample letter on our website which you can use - just fill in the name of one of the cabinet councillors listed on the web page at http://www.itsourcity.org.uk/whatyoucando.htm or alternatively you can write your own. The sooner you can do this the better, since we would like the Cabinet to feel the degree of public opinion before they meet.

Question and Answer Session Following the Meeting

Many points were raised in the question and answer session, which followed the speakers and we cover the main points here.

Residents Survey

A question was raised about the results of the residents survey undertaken by Centros Miller at the beginning of the year. Those at the meeting may remember that Steve Bryson from Halogen, the PR company employed by Centros Miller was also at the meeting. At the beginning of March, Mr Bryson responded to a query about the results of the residents survey by saying that he had perhaps been over optimistic about having the results of the local residents survey ready in a week or so. Four months later he still couldn’t come up with the results, despite Centros releasing their own interpretation of their city centre shoppers survey on February 7th, which has to make you wonder why. Following the meeting it also emerged that several of you in the areas outlined as having been surveyed by Centros Miller, never received survey questionnaires. See a map of the resident survey areas here. We would like to hear from you if you live in one of these areas coloured in ? and never received a survey letter from Centros Miller. Feb 8th David lewis of CM sent map of area surveyed by CM residents If they are truly taking our opinions into account then surely they need the results of this survey.

The Centros Miller Champion(s)

Another question concerned the identity of the ‘champions’ of the development referred to by John Laker, the managing director of Centros Miller in his interview with Shopping Centre Magazine in April this year. The ‘champion’ he relies on to push his developments through, is a councillor or council officer Mr Laker says. At the meeting, Mr Bryson hesitantly ventured to guess that these champions were ‘probably the Chief Planning Officer and the Leader of the Council’. Arguing the cause of the developer poses a clear conflict of interest for any official taking this position. Councillors and council officers are employed to protect the interests of the local electorate and not commercial organizations whose only interest in Lancaster is to make a profit. The development proposal should stand or fall on its own merits and not due to pressure by one council official on others.

Traffic Congestion

On the question of traffic, there was a general sense of dismay at hearing Prof Whitelegg’s estimate of 10,000+ extra car journeys a day as a result of the development going through as it is currently planned and this doesn’t include the additional traffic generated by other new developments in the City. We believe the traffic related issues should be considered in as much detail as it can be at this stage, before the Council commits your tax money to a development which may eventually fail if no practical solution can be found. Questions were also asked about the inevitable increase in air pollution and associated health problems on some sections of the community.

250 Year Lease

It was remarked that the 250 year lease the Council intends to grant to Centros Miller is insane. In 5 years Centros Miller could sell on their holdings in this development so whatever promises they make now about the site, there is no guarantee that a new owner will be bound by them. There was a feeling from many people that public land should remain public.

Preferred Developer Status

Questions were asked about how Centros Miller got their preferred developer status with the Council when no other developers were given the opportunity to tender. This link on Virtual Lancaster Online website gives a brief explanation as part of their larger article on our meeting.

Consultation Process

The fact that many knew very little about the development speaks volumes for the consultation process as Centros Miller sees it, revealing their residents survey as a superficial document which omits to ask relevant questions like ‘Do you want an extra 10,000 cars a day passing your front door?’ rather than ‘What are your main concerns about the development of this site?’, which assumes that the reader already knows about the development and is in a position to comment. For comparison see the public survey carried out by Real Planning in 2003. What Centros Miller have done cannot really be described as a real consultation.

Housing

One thing mentioned as missing from the Centros Miller masterplan was low cost ecologically friendly housing. The housing issue is also referred to in the Virtual Lancaster article in the context of more vulnerable members of our community.

Attendance of Councillors

It was remarked that there was a very poor turnout of councillors to the meeting. Labour councillors were having a meeting at the same time and Leader of the Council Ian Barker sent his apologies. Three Green party councillors attended but apparently no Independents or Lib Dems. It might seem that most of the councillors elected by you have no interest in what their constituents think about the development, but maybe a letter from you to your councillor will remind them that they were elected to represent your interests.

Centros Millers Investment

It was suggested that Centros Miller will have made a large investment in this development by the time of the Planning Application stage due in April 2007 and that they would be unlikely to quietly admit defeat even if no practical solution to the traffic problems had been found. This is one reason why we think it important to stop the signing of the Financial Planning Development Agreement as we have no idea of any financial penalties the Council may liable to if Centros Miller is refused planning application at that stage.

Council Elections

A salutory reminder to councillors was given by someone in the audience that local elections are due around the time that the Planning Application stage is due in April 2007. The public meeting held by 'It's Our City' was the first in opposition to the development, since up to now we have given Centros Miller and the Council the benefit of doubt over how they have progressed so far with the public consultation process. If the Council do not listen to us and properly include the views of residents in the legally required public consultation process then this will become an election issue which many councillors may regret.

Tunnels

On a lighter note, but not perhaps to those interested in local history, someone mentioned the presence of ancient tunnels leading from the Castle. One of these tunnels allegedly comes out under Stonewell which is included as part of the Centros plan, but we must admit we know nothing more about them apart from the fact that they are supposed to be quite deep underground and that Council planners know their locations. If you know any more we would like to hear from you - please use our contact page to tell us.