Council

Letter from Ian Barker to Steve Bryson of Halogen, Centros Miller's PR Company

27 Feb 2006

Steve Bryson
PR Consultant
c/o Centros Miller

steve.bryson@halogenuk.com

Dear Steve,

Thank you for your informative presentation about the emerging master plan for the Canal Corridor North on 14th February. Obviously this is a very important proposal for the ward I represent, so I thought it might be worth putting down some reactions to the presentation. At this stage the proposals haven’t been seen by Cabinet or by members of Planning Committee or the Planing Policy Liaison Group, so I am responding in my role as ward councillor rather than Leader.

I am encouraged by the approach. The plans are much better than those by a previous developer for a site dominated by “retail boxes” with very little thought given to other uses, or to the earlier plans for an inner relief road. I am also encouraged by the fact that you are consulting residents and stakeholders and assessing opinions before you make final proposals.

The scheme as proposed does include an arts quarter, housing and public open space as well as retail development. For me, those are prerequisites, so I am pleased to see them there. You also mentioned at the meeting on Tuesday that you hoped to make proper provision for small businesses that may be displaced by the scheme; again I welcome that.

So having given a cautious welcome to what you are doing, I would like to raise some concerns.

Traffic and Parking

It is an advantage of the scheme that the “rat run” along Edward St, Alfred Street and St Leonardsgate will no longer exist. That should bring some relief to residents on Alfred Street and other nearby streets who won’t have to suffer the nuisance from standing traffic outside their front doors.

However, I am concerned that we might be creating a similar problem on Bulk Road if we can’t solve the problems of access. It is very important that we find a way of accessing the site from Back Caton Road rather than Bulk Road. This is particularly so if you are hoping to intercept some of the traffic that currently ends up on the gyratory system. Bulk Road is already used to bypass the one way system rather than for local traffic and I would not want to see any further increase. You indicated that studies were underway which you find encouraging. However, you gave no details.

You also said that a multi-storey car park on three or four levels would be adequate both to replace the lost parking and to provide for new demand generated by the scheme. You said that such a car park would not be dominant when seen from the residential part of the site. Again, I think the detail was lacking. A larger car park would exacerbate the problems of access and be harder to absorb in the site, there wasn’t the information to convince me that the one proposed would be adequate and would not lead to problems elsewhere.

Do you have a date for when you expect to complete and present traffic and parking studies?

Alfred Street and Open Space

As mentioned above, I like the idea of taking through traffic off Alfred Street. However, residents of that street and the adjacent terraced areas will naturally be concerned about a possible over dominant development. It’s crucial that the proposed housing on the eastern side does not dominate the existing terraces and that neither is dominated by the proposed multi-storey car park.

I like the idea of providing Alfred Street and the nearby terraced housing with some open space. However, the planned open space on the sawmill site looked a bit of an afterthought to me and didn’t look as if it would be “owned” by existing housing. Could you look at this? Is there any way of making it more integrated with existing housing?

Arts Provision

Again its encouraging that you have provided for the Dukes and the Grand in a positive way and have identified a location for an expanded Musicians Co-op with performance space on the site. Did you say you would cater for the dance school too? Obviously, what seemed to be proposed is a big step forward for the Musician’s Co-op and may be financially very demanding for them. Do they feel comfortable with what is proposed?

I am not sure that the arts zone hangs together that well. The Dukes, the Grand and the proposed building for the Co-op on St Leonardgate seem to look outwards to me, so I can’t get a feel of how this is an integrated arts quarter. I am not sure how the linking public space will bring things together. Can you give more details?

Affected Individuals and Businesses

 

Town Centre Shopping

I share your belief that the provision of a major department store in Lancaster will retain trade in Lancaster that is currently or potentially being lost to Preston and Manchester and will help trading conditions overall. However, there is a limit to how much additional floor space can be accommodated before it adversely affects the viability of the rest of the Town Centre. No one wants to see significant numbers of empty shops there. Have you any clear idea of what that limit is and have you got evidence to present on that point?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,
Ian Barker
Leader of the Council