Council

Planning Committee Bamboozled - 16th October 08

Lancaster Planning Committee passed the main Centros planning application together with all the other applications except 08/00864/OUT. 08/00865/OUT and 07/00602/OUT at the Oct 14th meeting.

Our next step (and we hope yours) is to lobby the Government Office of the Northwest to get the decision called in by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Hazel Blears, and we have updated our How to Object page with brief details of how to do this. The Secretary of State can then approve or reject the application or call a public inquiry where the issues raised by the numerous objectors can be properly considered in a public forum without council planners and developers calling the shots and concealing the facts.

We are heartened by the strong opposition from several national heritage organisations including SAVE, English Heritage, the Georgian group, the Victorian Society and the Campaign for Protection of Rural England. SAVE in particular have formally commissioned restoration specialist architects Richard Griffiths to come up with an alternative proposal for the regeneration of the canal corridor as well as collaborating with London Architects Ptolemy Dean . SAVE have also instructed their lawyers to see if there is a case for a judicial review. See what Ptolemy Dean had to say about the Centros scheme on the architects web site Building Design

Despite many good arguments from objectors which would have sunk any other planning application, the ignorance of councillors about the true facts was exploited by planning officer Mark Cassidy who assumed the mantle of Centros champion while chief planning officer Andrew Dobson was notable by his absence with a vague explanation that issues had been raised about his attendance. Skyline images from the application showing the true effect on Lancaster's historic skyline were not shown to the committee though images suggesting a minimal effect were.

Notably, the Environment Agency made no comment on Air Quality despite planning officers admission that air quality will worsen and we believe that the Environment Agency's independent status has been seriously undermined by local politics and their dealings with Lancaster Council's Environmental Health Services.

In a remarkable betrayal of Lancaster's historic city status, representatives from the civic society enthusiastically supported the development. Whilst they were allowed two representatives to speak in support of the development, It's Our City was denied any group representation though several members spoke as individuals.

As expected, the result was a foregone conclusion with Labour, Conservative and Independent councillors voting for the proposals and the Greens against.