Past Events

Gregson Public Meeting 18 July 06

The meeting was lively and the room once again packed, though the size of the room did not allow the 200 or so who attended the recent Town Hall meeting . The original intent of the meeting was to consider alternative visions for the Canal Corridor site. This was discussed initially but due to the difficulties of coming up with a cohesive plan with so many opinions, it was felt our purpose would be better served by contacting some of the more sensitive/sustainable developers such as Wayne Hemingway (of the Better Red than Dead designer label) who we have already written to, and Urban Splash, which has also diversified into sustainable community oriented urban planning to try and get them interested in planning an alternative development for the Canal Corridor North site.

Thanks go to the many people who offered to distribute flyers in their area publicising the cabinet meeting. We hope to see you and many more at Lancaster Bus Station at 8.30am on July 25th to take the number 4 bus, or if you are making your own way there , we will see you on the steps of Morecambe Town Hall

The rest of the meeting raised numerous points but predominantly what the group should do if the Cabinet votes to sign the planning development agreement with Centros Miller on July 25th. The strength of feeling was such that people were keen to cover this point first.

Action to be Taken if Cabinet Signs the Development Agreement

We will push for the leader of the council Ian Barker to make public exactly what will happen then. We want to know the timescale, dates of any consultation exercises, planning applications, traffic assessment exercises etc. etc. We believe that our community should be allowed full participation/observation in all future Council/Centros meetings so that the people of Lancaster are given a choice and not excluded from the planning process.

The unanimous conclusion was that the views of local voters have been essentially ignored. We will be observing our elected representatives very closely over the coming period and they should be in no doubt that we will make this issue a major point in the local elections next May. Our councillors need to be reminded that they depend on our votes to get re-elected. Awareness of the issues surrounding our campaign has already reached Morecambe and we can expect opposition there to grow.

Other Decisions and Initiatives Resulting from the Meeting

At the It's Our City stall in Lancaster Market Square on Saturday 22nd July, get people to sign letters to Councillors on the spot, which we'll deliver to the Town Hall for them.

Find out if residents have a right to talk at Council Cabinet meetings

We intend to research the circumstances surrounding the consultation process in other cities that have been designated pilots in the ‘fast track’ planning scheme that is being used for this development. The Planning Delivery Agreement scheme was conceived to make life easier for developers but also makes much reference to issues like public consultation, affordable housing and sustainability. We want Centros Miller and the Council to conform to the spirit of the scheme, and not treat it as a pick’n mix strategy to suit their hidden agendas.

Establish exactly who owns which parts of the Canal Corridor North site. We know the council owns the car parks, but who owns the land on which the theatres, dance school etc. stand and the buildings in the conservation area at Stonewell. We know Mitchell owns the brewery site but do they own any other parcels of land on the site. If anyone knows the answers to these questions please contact us.

Centros Miller intend Debenhams to form the anchor for their development plan. We will look at the locations of other Debenhams in the region. It was felt that another Debenhams in Lancaster would be excessive on top of the one planned for Blackpool in 2007 and the existing stores in Preston and Barrow.

We need to find out if there is a definition of 'Proper Consultation'

We need to find out how to complain that public consultation has been inadequate. Can we get some legal advice?

At the end of the Centros Miller Resident's Questionnaire there was a box to tick if you wanted to be kept informed. Residents who ticked this box have heard nothing, which we need to complain about. They should at least have been informed about the Centros Miller presentations at the Town Hall.

We will gather evidence to support the proposition that Centros Miller's master plan will turn the existing town centre into a ‘ghost town’. Someone mentioned that a similar development in Barrow with a Debenhams that is offset from the old town centre had been built as part of a regeneration project, but that it may have been responsible to a large degree for emptying the town centre's retail units and filling them with charity shops. We will look for other examples of similar developments that have killed off old town centres, so anyone with more information about this please let us know.

We will look into what's being proposed for the Luneside East Area. How does this impact on the Canal Corridor North development?

The question of lobbying the County Council to stop the road closures of Alfred Street/Edward Street was raised. It was suggested that congestion and rat running will be made even worse in the City due to these road closures. We will definitely NOT be lobbying on this issue, since if Alfred St and Edward St remained open, and the development went ahead, the residents in these areas would carry the extra traffic. See the post from Billy Pye dated July 24 for more detail on this.

It was asked - ‘Who can we complain to about Centros Miller's connections with our local press?' This is an issue highlighted on the Knights of St Edmund website who have been opposing a Centros Miller development in the centre of Bury St Edmunds. Unfortunately they left their objections too late, perhaps due to Centros Miller’s level of ‘public consultation’ and they look set to be unsuccessful. They present evidence that the chief executive of the Johnson Press, Tim Bowdler also sits on the board of the Miller Group as a non-executive director. The Johnson Press controls newspapers in Portsmouth, Bury St Edmunds and Lancaster, all towns that have been targeted by Centros Miller for major retail led developments. Mr Bowdler’s views on the freedom of the press make disturbing reading and he claims that media ownership regulations which attempt to protect editorial freedom and a vibrant local press might actually cause damage to it. Who are you trying to kid Mr Bowdler?

If you want to complain, the place to go is the Press Complaints Commission.

We will ask Council and Centros Miller to keep us fully informed on everything to do with this development.

We will contact LocalWorks.org who are campaigning for a Sustainable Communities Bill, who may be able to help show that this development is not sustainable.

Other Observations

All campaigners present felt very strongly that the council should have held a competition, to be judged by members of our community as well as our elected representatives and not simply accept the first speculative developer who came along.

Concern was expressed that Centros Miller have not publicly revealed the results of their residents ‘survey’ although we understand that Cabinet have been given a draft ‘result’. The results of their city centre survey suggest that these would more correctly be described as interpretations of results. Given the record of public consultation by Centros Miller and the Council so far they will no doubt have to ‘get their stories straight’ before releasing it to the public. Many people were angered by the fervour with which Andrew Dobson, Chief Planning Officer for the Council was seen to support the Centros Miller position at their presentations whilst dismissing objections from the public.