Run entirely by dedicated volunteers, this site is full of local information about the Lancaster and Morecambe Bay area so you can make the best of the amazing range of events, festivals, facilities, food, services, attractions, enterprises, and hospitality available locally, on the ground and online - for children as well as adults. You can also read local news and features about local issues in our news section and even comment on local events in our forum. Or simply send us a letter for our letters page!

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LANCASTER TORIES IN SLEAZE SCANDAL

David Sumberg		Rt Hon Sir Robert Atkins

14/5/08: Two Conservative MEPs representing Lancaster in the European Parliament have been condemned by a national newspaper for the use of their expenses.
The News of the World on Sunday (11 May) revealed that MEP David Sumberg had paid his wife more than £95,000 in some years for "secretarial assistance", despite the fact that he has made only two speeches in the European Parliament since 2004.
And in circumstances similar to those of the Conway affair in the House of Commons, Sir Robert Atkins was revealed as having both his pensioner wife and his son salaried at more than £2,500 a month EACH!
Now local Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies is demanding to know what Tory leader David Cameron is doing to clean up his party's act.
Read more about Davies' anti-sleaze campaign.

CENTROS GO TO PLAN B
8/5/08: A revised planning application is being launched by development company Centros and a copy of their brochure for the proposals can be downloaded here.
This plan has a Booths supermarket, and according to the development agreement, a two century long stranglehold on the city centre economy.
But is the development agreement a valid document?
With one of the agreement's Guarantor companies stripped down to only £100 liability, the other sheltering in the British Virgin Islands and questions arising over the council's employment of Donaldsons, a company with strong business ties to Centros Miller, to advise Lancaster City Council in negotiating its development deal with Centros Miller, the deal will undoubtedly have to be renegotiated.
Read more about Centros' latest troubles in Lancaster.

ADULT EDUCATION CUTS AT UNIVERSITY
1/5/08: Lancaster University bosses are being urged to think announced plans to slash their Adult Education program and its plans to cut several jobs.
Last month the University's Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings announced a "reduction in activities" for the Department of Continuing Education (DCE). This will mean a drastic cutback in the University's adult education provision in the North West and leave thousands of part-time students unable to complete their studies. For a university with Lancaster's long-standing and honourable regional commitment to adult education, opponents of the plans describe the cuts as a public relations disaster.
It is also an explicit threat to the jobs of the forty staff in DCE. Staff are already being encouraged to look for other employment - and our 200 part-time tutors. The
A review of DCE activities is taking place but the remit and power of the review group is unclear. By his actions, the Vice-chancellor has pre-empted the outcome of this review. The trade unions have asked for full meeting of the University/Trade Unions Joint Consultative Committee to discuss this, but this has been denied.
The link below will take you to a petition addressed to the Lancaster University Chancellor. Please sign it if you would like to show your support for the department. It would be very helpful if you could include a message of support in the space provided.
• Sign the Petition on GoPettion

CENTROS PULL OUT OF 'VISIONARY' DUMFRIES SCHEME
14/04/08: Regeneration plans for the centre of Dumfries in Scotland collapsed last week when Centros, the company behind the redevelopment plan, pulled out of the scheme because, according to Centros' PR man Steve Bryson "The projected valuation of the completed project has fallen so sharply that there is now insufficient return." Read more..

CANAL CORRIDOR DATES
3/4/08: Centros look set to be submitting their revised planning application for the redevelopment of Lancaster's Canal Corridor later in the spring and are squaring up to resume the invasion on the ground with an invitation to selected local stakeholder groups to a 'consultation workshop meeting' (yes, all three at once) from Steve Bryson of Halogen, Centros' cuddly PR face. Read more...

LINK ROAD UPDATE
2/4/08: The decision by the Secretary of State to approve the Heysham M6 Northern Route following a Pulic Inquiry met with a mixed response.
Funding has yet to be approved for the project, projected costs of which rose from £105 million to £140 million between January and March 2008. Read more...

GLASSON EASTER MARITIME FESTIVAL LAUNCHED!

20/3/08: The Easter Maritime Festival at Glasson Dock got off to a roaring start last night with her Majesty's pressgang roaming the Village Hall (though I notice they didn't stray all that far from the rum barrell!-) and a rousing set from traditional sea-shanty band Stormalong John.
Participants were invited to shy balls at the perfidious French (bearing in mind that the whole thing is set during the Napoleonic wars) and several gentleman managed that (a task slightly easier than hitting the proverbial barn-door).
The festival runs throughout the Easter holiday, from Friday evening (21 March) all the way through til Monday night 24 March), with dozens of free performances by nationally renowned musicians, theatre performances and a panoply of other maritime-related events with a Georgian flavour.
A free bus shuttle will run between Glasson and the nearby Stork Hotel - venue for numerous continuous performances, and a vintage coach service will run between the maritime Museum on Lancaster's St George's Quay (another festival venue) and Glasson. With hundreds of free events you will need the full festival programme and you can download it here!
Special thanks go to Seatruck Ferries, the festival's main sponsors, whose Technical Director Andy Askham heard about the festival's financial difficulties and stepped up straight away to save the day. It's great to see business contributing to local cultural life.

CARNIVAL CARNIVAL!

4/3/08: Lancaster's Carnival of Culture on Saturday was such a rip-roaring success that I've only just recovered myself enough to write it up. The weather cleared in time, hurray, and about two thousand colourful and happy people took part in the carnival parade, celebrating Lancaster's culture and pouring scorn on those who want to sell off chunks of the city for poorly planned and unpopular retail developments and (even worse-planned and less popular) road building.
The buzz is that Lancaster has a better culture than the bunch of cloned high street retailers and winebars that developers want to stuff our cultural quarter with - and this flamboyant carnival, put together in a couple of months without any public funding, definitely proves their point.
Read more about the carnival ...

CAR PARKING
28/2/08: Cr Jim Blakely (Lab. John O'Gaunt ward) has proposed a task group to look at ways in which the parking problems around the district can be improved. The task group would look at all parking issues including those caused by commuters and difficulties with the Council's car parks.
Meanwhile Lancaster City Council Cabinet has resisted proposals to increase car park charges. The charge for parking for up to one hour will be unchanged in 2008-9 from the fee charged in 2007-8, and a tariff will be set for the first time for a four hour parking period.
Leader of the Council Roger Mace tells us that these changes were in line with requests from stakeholders. The proposal now in the budget means that some £26,000 less revenue will be taken from motorists over the period 1 June 2008 to 31 March 2009 than would have been the case under the proposals approved in January. Read more..

COUNCIL TAX RISE ANNOUNCED
28/2/08: Lancaster City Council's portion of Council Tax will rise by 4.5% for the majority of residents living in the district. Residents living in an average Band D property will pay an extra £7.90 - or 15p a week - to the city council from April 2008.
City councillors confirmed the rise at a meeting on Wednesday when they set the council's net revenue budget for 2008/09 at £23.211 million.
The average resident in a Band D property will see their bill rise by £51.49 overall.
The county council's increase (for services like education, Social Services and highways) will be 2.95 per cent or £30.86. The Police Authority's will be 7.95 per cent or £10.01, and the Fire Authority's increase will be 4.74 per cent or £2.72.
Read more..

MARITIME FESTIVAL SAVED
25/2/08: Good news! Following our report last week of the possible cancellation of this year's Maritime Festival, the Council has agreed that the event will go ahead with funding being found from alternative budgets.
This decision is subject to the usual call in period, which is five working days.
The decision follows allegations of another behind the scenes plot at Lancaster Town Hall, this time to scupper the world famous Festival scheduled to take place in Glasson Dock at Easter. Read More...

NEW LOOK FOR THE PARK
14/2/08: Thwaites Brewery have handed the keys of the Park (aka the Park Hotel) opposite Lancaster's Greaves Park to Dr Richard Dow, who (with considerable partnership, support and guidance from most of East Lancaster) brought us the Gregson Centre and the Britannia 101.
Following a decline in its popularity over recent years, the pub is currently closed and undergoing a full refubishment.
A Grand Opening is scheduled for Friday 29 February, with sounds by Howard Haigh and his outstanding gypsy jazz band LAVA and we are all invited. Read more..

BYPASS GETS GO AHEAD, CAMPAIGNERS TO FIGHT "ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME"
8/2/08, updated 10/2/08: To the dismay of local campaigners against the plans, Secretary of State Hazel Blears has accepted the recommendations of government planning inspector Christopher Tipping and given planning permission for the Heysham-M6 link road.
A decision on funding the road (which it is estimated will cost around 160 million) will be made separately by the Government, and if given, the road is expected to be completed by 2012. Read More...

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