Traffic
The traffic issue poses the greatest challenge for developers Centros Miller but they are not considering reasonable and viable ideas such as a park and ride scheme for the proposed development which would avoid increased air pollution in the city centre. Their priority is to get cars into their shopping centre whatever traffic chaos it might bring to the rest of the city.
If the development goes ahead with the proposed multi-storey car park, the increased levels of standing and moving traffic will have a multitude of negative consequences for health, safety and daily life in Lancaster.
The profit motivated plans of a multinational company operating out of the British Virgin Islands should not be allowed to influence the Local Development Framework of our city, as revealeded by the quasi-public-private sector Vision Board's 'Lancaster District Transport Vision and Strategy Report' of July 2008 funded by the county council and Northwest Regional Development Agency and produced by Centros civil engineering consultants Faber Maunsell. The conflict of interest between the Centros profit motive, and the sustainable development Lancaster needs is too obvious to ignore.
Traffic Links
- Lancaster District Transport Vision and Strategy Report - In 2008, Lancaster & Morecambe Vision Board, in partnership with Lancashire County Council and Lancaster City Council, published this major study into improvements to transport and road networks in the Lancaster area. The study was undertaken by Centros consultants Faber Maunsell, while they were also working to promote the Centros development. Conflict of interest? This is like putting the fox in the hen coop.
- Transport Solutions for Lancaster & Morecambe - TSLM is a local group which opposes the Heysham M6 link road and seeks to develop alternative and sustainable solutions to traffic problems in Lancaster and Morecambe which are acceptable to the community as a whole. They lost a public inquiry in 2007 but as of June 2012, construction has still not started.
- Reconciling Environmental and Social Transport Policies - 4 Oct 2004 - A study from the European Federation for Transport and Environment.