Centros Debacle: Who Is Responsible?

The public inquiry into absent-from-proceedings developer Centros plans for Lancaster's canal corridor is nearly finished, with supplementary evidence and closing submissions due to be submitted in writing over the next few weeks.

Campaign group It’s Our City have played a full part in the inquiry process and have provided the Inspector with detailed evidence on consultation, traffic and air quality, the retail impact and economic tourism. The group also reports they were also hugely pleased to see so many local people come to the inquiry to tell the inspector why they opposed Centros’s plans.

A final decision is due in the next few months, and now It's Our City is turning its attention to what it describes as "serious problems" concerning Lancaster City Council’s role regarding these plans - especially its decision to withdraw from the Inquiry after it had begun. In particular: who was responsible for the council’s decision to defend the plans?

“It seems strange that the council only realised that there were major problems with this scheme, leading them to withdraw from the inquiry, at a late stage," says It’s Our City spokesperson Emilie Secker. "Surely the planning team should have been asking questions about these issues from the outset?

"It was clear at the inquiry that it is very important to the people of Lancaster that there is proper accountability for the poor decision to continue with the Centros scheme despite the clear failures of the plans”.

Despite the furore over the Inquiry's proceedings, It’s Our City say they are now looking forward to working with both local and national bodies to further community-led development in Lancaster.

“There are clearly some major problems with the way in which the planning team in the council dealt with this whole process," feels Billy Pye. "However, it's also clear that there are people within the council prepared to act with honesty and integrity and who have a different way of doing things.

"English Heritage and Save Britain’s Heritage are keen to work with local people in Lancaster in the future, and of course there are many local citizens who would love to get properly involved in deciding how Lancaster should move forward. We see this as an incredibly positive thing for the future of our city”.

Responding to It's Our City's concerns, Mark Cullinan, Lancaster City Council's chief executive, told virtual-lancaster: "I remain satisfied that the council has met its responsibilities appropriately and that its officers have acted properly at each stage of the process."

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Dog Fun Day Planned for Heysham School

Lancaster City Council has teamed up with the RSPCA, the Dogs Trust and Lune Valley Training Club to offer free microchipping, identity discs and training to all dog owners at a special event to be held on Wednesday 22nd July.

The Dog Fun Day will take place at Trumacar Primary School in Heysham between 10.00am to 12 noon and 1.00pm to 3.00pm.

Dog owners will be given the chance to have their pets chipped for free and meet experts from the Dog Warden Service, RSPCA and Dogs Trust, who will be on hand to offer advice.

Lune Valley Dog Training Club will also be providing one-to-one consultations.

Every dog attending will be given a free engraved disc to put on their collar and anyone claiming any welfare benefits will be entitled to a free neutering voucher. To claim the voucher simply take along some form of proof of your benefit.

Children are welcome but they must be accompanied by an adult.

• For more information on the day contact Mark Woodhead 01524 582744 or email mwoodhead@lancaster.gov.uk

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Canal Corridor Inquiry closes

The Inquiry into the Centros plans for Lancaster's Canal Corridor closed last week with a final decision on the proposals due in the next few months.

Most of the Inquiry time in the final week was taken up by personal statements from members of the public and from local councillors arguing against the plans.

Reflecting the level of interest in the proposed development, the City Council details over 70 people who had their say, with 66 members of the public made personal statements against the plans eight Green Party councillors either spoke in person or submitted written statements also against the plans.

Just one member of the public spoke in favour of the plans and, despite the Council's overall support for the scheme, no councillors from any other political party took advantage of the opportunity to speak in favour.

Councillor John Whitelegg, who represents Bulk Ward which will be primarily affected by the development if it goes ahead, spoke about his disappointment that the whole plan was imposed by the council. He was also concerned that Centros with no attempt to involve the public in a thorough participative exercise to develop their own ideas for this part of the Bulk Ward.

He also referred to the irresponsible behaviour of the city council in promoting a development that made air quality worse when as a council it had, in his opinion, done little to deliver our statutory duty to improve air quality.

(Last week, research being carried out by Prof Barbara Maher of Lancaster University into current pollution levels in the city has revealed the alarming extent to which people are already being exposed to lead pollution from vehicles. Acknowledging concerns, backed by its own monitoring station, the city council says that over the next two years, with the help of the Energy Saving Trust, it would implement a climate change action plan. View its Air Quality and Pollution page here).

Councillor Maia Whitelegg emphasised her concerns for children and the need to protect children in Bulk Ward from additional traffic danger in line with the "Every Child Matters" agenda.

County Councillor Sam Riches said she was deeply concerned about the proposed demolition of so many historic buildings, especially in view of the designation of conservation areas in the vicinity. She argued the loss of buildings in Stonewell in particular would do irreparable damage to a street plan and its associated elements, including vistas from further afield, which have taken centuries to develop. Lancaster is incredibly lucky to have such a complex built heritage, and whilst a number of the buildings in the Canal Corridor area are clearly in a poor state, it would be completely iniquitous to destroy them in order to develop the site.

Councillor Jude Towers raised several concerns about the proposed development, including the accelerating trend in developments of this type to remove public space into the hands of private developers, giving them the freedom to impose rules and regulations on that once publically owned space as they see fit.

"The Inquiry was a huge success in that all the objectors were able to present detailed, robust evidence as to why this development should not proceed," said Councillor John Whitelegg, reflecting on the whole three-week Inquiry.

"Day after day at the Inquiry showed that the Council's case was weak and incomplete and that its defence of this damaging development was based on poor judgement, poor data, a poor understanding of planning policy and a disregard for historic buildings.

"The high point was undoubtedly the unprecedented amount of public involvement in the final week and the passionate arguments made in favour of an alternative to Centros that would enhance Lancaster's special character and sense of place rather than producing more traffic, pollution and boarded up shops in the city centre."

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Lancaster Air-Mail from the 4th Plinth!

Lancaster based-artist Rachel Baynton will join 2400 people taking their place this year on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of Angel of the North creator Antony Gormley’s One & Other project which sees a different person on the plinth every hour, 24 hours a day for 100 days.

On Saturday 25th July between 5-6.00pm Rachel will be standing on the plinth and wants to know what you would say if you were up there. She intends to launch paper aeroplanes from the top of the plinth, with your messages written on them, to the world below. The messages will also be available to view and respond to at Proto-type Theater’s website on their plinthmail blog, www.proto-type.org/plinthmail.

"Antony Gormley described the One & Other project as being about the democratisation of art, that anyone could have an equal opportunity to take part and have an hour to present or communicate whatever they chose" explains Rachel, who is also part of local theatre group Proto-type. "I was lucky enough to receive one of those spots but not everyone can be.

"I’d really like to try and give a voice to those with something they want to say on the plinth but haven’t been given the chance to. If I shout then I’m not sure I’ll be heard over the noise in Trafalgar square so paper aeroplanes seemed a good way of sending a message."

So, do you have something to say? Is there something that you’re passionate about that you’d like to draw attention to? Do you need to announce, explain, apologise, shout from the roof tops? If so then email Rachel at plinthmail@proto-type.org and she’ll pass the message on.

• Rachel will be launching your messages on Saturday July 25th, 5-6pm. You can watch Rachel launch them, and all the 4th Plinth 'performances' live via http://www.oneandother.co.uk. (Note this is a live webstream that may contain offensive content).

• Send your messages to plinthmail@proto-type.org
Find your messages at www.proto-type.org/plinthmail . Please include your name and location and keep your messages to approx. 50 words, thankyou!

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Lancaster City Council publishes its Annual Report

Lancaster City Council has published its Annual Report for 2008/09, which gives an overview of the council and the district it serves, as well as a snapshot of some of its achievements and initiatives of the last year and priorities for the next 12 months.

“The last 12 months have been a difficult time for both the council and society in general," commented Coun Stuart Langhorn, Leader of Lancaster City Council. Not really a surprize, considering the council is still coping with the fallout from the Iceland banking crisis and demands to make savage cuts to services. But despite this, "I believe that the council has had a successful year," Langhorn adds.

“This report looks back at how some of the challenges we have had to overcome as well as looking forward to those we face in the future.”

• To view a copy of the report, visit www.lancaster.gov.uk/annualreport or contact Lancaster City Council’s Corporate Strategy Service on 01524 582150.

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Pasties Are Better Than Comics

Two local comic artists have contributed to an independent comic inspired by the humble pasty.

Celebrating this lunch time staple of Cornish miners, students and many others (yet ruined by many a bakery who have no idea what a Cornish pasty really should taste like), indie British creator Rob Jackson has just launched the 28-page The Pasty Anthology, which features contributions from Rob himself, Judge Dredd Magazine writer Matt Badham, Jim Medway,
Steve Butler, Francesca Cassavetti - and local artists Dave Hughes and Ant Mercer.

The Pasty Anthology available from Rob's web site, priced only £2.50 (PayPal accepted), free postage in the UK.

"I mentioned a random idea on my blog for a Pasty based story ('The Story of Greggs' – which was a Viz-style story, thinking of those pages in Viz every so often that are called things like ‘The Story of Honey’ or ‘How We Get Milk’)," explains Rob of the anthology's origins.

It was our local talent who persuaded Rob to turn the idea into a comic - and tucked into drawing for it with gusto. "Dave Hughes was very keen and started drawing pages for it," Rob reveals, "so I thought I’d better actually make it."

Dave has previously created comics inspired by Morecambe and the North, which can be bought at First Age in the Assembly Rooms on King Street, while, in addition to his art, Ant Mercer ran a comics convention in Williamson Park back in 2006. The pair are just two of several established creators who live locally, including Marvel Comics writer Andy Diggle, ROK Comics editor John Freeman, artist Paul Harrison-Davies and others. In fact, the number of comics creatives in our area may well lead to some comics events next year.

Rob admits it's pasties are a pretty off-the-wall theme for a comic, "but everyone likes them. I was happily surprised at how all the artists have gone for very different takes on the vague theme.

Rob tells us he hopes his fans and newcomers to his work and the other creators will enjoy the title, which he's been working on since February. "It's very funny," he enthuses, "and has lots of very diverse stories."

Despite creating a Pasty Anthology, Rob admits he's never made one of his own. "Cheese and onion is my favourite, or Greggs Vegetable pasty," he admits, "but Dave Hughes did masses of research for his two stories (which are very funny). He's like a method actor in his diligent research!"

• Buy The Pasty Anthology via www.robjacksoncomics.com

• Sample Pages and more info on Rob's blog: www.robjacksoncomics.blogspot.com

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Heysham High Wakes up and Shakes Up!

Heysham High School students gave Diversity a run for their money as they attempted to set a Guinness Book World Record for the most pupils to take part in a synchronised activity.

Over 80,000 students across Lancashire took part in dancing to Lady Ga Ga and The Saturdays to celebrate National Sports Week in association with the Youth Sports Trust and Rock FM.

Schools in Lancashire were sent videos to help them all train for the same dance routine and the dances at Heysham were lead by two fitness instructors from VVV and Heysham High School Sports College Director of Sport, Mrs. Noops Kirby.

"The students really enjoyed themselves and the movement from them was great," commented Gareth Finney, Heysham High's Partnership and Community Development Manager

"At the last count, 80,000 students had taken part and we are waiting for confirmation we have achieved world record status."

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University opens up facilities for Local Artists

The University of Cumbria is offering the opportunity for four local artists to utilise its arts facilities in Lancaster and Carlisle for free, thanks to the Artists Access to Art Colleges (AA2A) project.

Local artists can apply to use the University's facilities in woodwork, jewellery, textiles, printmaking and ceramics at the Brampton Road campus and sculpture (bronze and aluminium casting using sand, lost wax processes, MIG and TIG welding and plasma cutting facilities) both in Carlisle and printmaking at the Lancaster campus.

The scheme entitles each artist/maker to 100 hours of access to workshops and supporting areas, from 19 October 2009 to 26 March 2010.This allows students to work alongside artists and gain a valuable insight into the art world outside university.

AA2A is a national set of schemes which give artists the chance to undertake a project or research using workshop and supporting facilities in fine art and design departments of higher and further education institutions. It enables artists to use equipment that might not otherwise to available to them and benefits the institution by bringing in ideas and techniques which may not otherwise enter the education environment.

"The AA2A scheme enabled me to make use of splendid facilities on campus, especially the large plaster room," enthuses artist Hilary Harrison from Burgh by Sands, Carlisle, who recently took part in the scheme at the Brampton Road campus. "I really enjoyed my time on the scheme. It was good to be able to develop ideas and experiment without feeling under any pressure.

"The scheme provides valuable experience of being amongst other makers and gave me the chance to see others at work, to exchange ideas and be of mutual help. Staff and students alike were very friendly and supportive. I would thoroughly recommend it to others."

The University of Cumbria is one of only 37 colleges and universities across England that has been successful in its application to host an Artists Access scheme within its Faculty of the Arts. It will be the eighth year that the Brampton Road Campus has been involved in AA2A.

• To get an application pack contact Olivia Toppin the University of Cumbria coordinator on 01228 888740 or e-mail her on olivia.toppin@cumbria.ac.uk

• For more information about AA2A, visit their website at www.aa2a.org.

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Cockling tragedy victims to be remembered at RHS Flower Show

The tragic deaths of 23 Chinese cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay are to be remembered in Lancaster City Council’s display at this year’s RHS Flower Show.

The council has teamed up with acclaimed local artist Chas Jacobs to design the display, which will go on show at Tatton Park in the National Flower Bed Competition.

It depicts the terrible aftermath of events in February 2004 following a desperate effort to try and rescue Chinese cockle pickers who had become trapped by the tide while working late at night.

A cockle picker’s cart and rake lie stranded on a sandbank in the middle of Morecambe Bay surrounded by the sea – the same scene which confronted the rescue workers the following morning.

Coun Jon Barry, Cabinet member with responsibility for City Council (Direct) Services, said: “Morecambe Bay is one of our district’s greatest assets and an extremely important site for wildlife.

“But at the same time its tides and sands are notoriously treacherous and have claimed many lives over the years. This year’s Tatton display reflects the beauty of the bay at the same as recognising its deadly nature.”

Over the years the council has been successful at the Tatton show, which this year runs from July 22 to 26.

Two years ago the gardening team picked up a gold medal and they have also won a number of silver gilt and bronze medals.

The display is put together by the council’s team of green-fingered gardeners and gives the council the opportunity to promote the district to thousands of people.

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