Old Posts

3 Aug 2006 - Michael Nunn

I have a concern about the Centros Miller scheme which I haven't yet heard debated: the archaeology of the site in question. The area covered by this madcap scheme has been occupied for many hundreds of years in a variety of ways.

There is certainly evidence of Georgian habitation, and possibly of monastic strutures (St Leonard's Hospital) from mediaeval times, and maybe earlier habitation back to Roman times.

What provision is Centros Miller offering for an archaeological dig before the whole area is concreted over for the next 250 years? Oxford Archaeology North, based at the University here, would love the chance to investigate, I'm sure.

We now kick ourselves that Shakespeare's Globe is now under huge concrete edifices on the South Bank in London. I do hope that our children and the generations to come will not be able to wave the accusing finger at us, here, now. It is an opportunity to discover more about Lancaster's past which must not be lost.

Oh, and aren't the buildings on the corner of Stonewell which house the Post Office listed, or in a conservation area? One of them has the Edmomdson blue plaque. To destroy them would be to go back to the rash vandalism of the 1960s.