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next stories: 16 - 31 August 2006
Previous stories: 16 - 31 July 2006

CO-HOUSING SCHEME FILLING UP
16/8/06: The Lancaster Co-Housing Scheme reports that they have already sold double the number of homes in Phase I of the scheme than was originally aimed for! 14 households have now stumped up the initial £5k investment towards their home and Phase II home sales will be released soon. Project Development Team and founder member Mark Westcombe says, "Cohousing is an excellent balance between the private and communal, the modern and the old. It's a great environment for all ages, but with great benefits for families and children. Our two guiding principles are, however, to: build and live in a neighbourly community with some shared facilities; and to live in an ecologically sustainable manner by building a cutting edge example of a carbon neutral community.
"There's a project development team of 5 doing the core graft to make Lancaster Cohousing happen. Members pitch in, offer specific services and come along to the important monthly meetings where you influence the project and community design. But we're happy to take joiners who want to do the bare minimum in the design and build phase and just enjoy the benefits of living in and contributing to a sense of community."
"We have had a members' schematic site design workshop for the site and we've used those results to submit a pre-planning application to the Planning Dept at the Council. They've come back to us with a very favourable response. This has been exciting as we've started to visualise the community we'll be living in. We can now start to push forward with a site purchase and the architects' tendering process.
"We've a shortlist of 4 sites near Lancaster city centre that the Planners have advised us on, from a long list of 12."
The next public meeting is on Saturday 2 September 14.30-16.00, at the Lancaster Friend's Meeting House (Staffed creche available)
You can find out more about the Lancaster Co-Housing Scheme at : www.lancastercohousing.org.uk

WHITELEGG, WALLACE ALLY AGAINST TRAIN CHANGES
15/8/06: Lancaster’s Tory MP Ben Wallace and Green councillor and world-renowned transport expert John Whitelegg have both condemned proposed changes to rail travel which could see an end to direct services from Lancaster to the South Coast.
Plans to overhaul the Cross Country rail franchise could see cuts to up to 50 weekly long-distance inter-city services between Scotland and destinations such as Bournemouth, Plymouth and Penzance – and have been criticized by both local councils, politicians and Rail Users Groups.
Passengers will be forced to change at Birmingham, where trains will terminate.
Other changes include a reduction in the number of long-distance services stopping at Oxenholme and Penrith. There may also be service cuts affecting Wigan North Western and Warrington Bank Quay.
The Department of Transport claims the proposals, part of a revamp of a new eight-year franchise which will operate from November 2007, aim to ease congestion between Manchester and Birmingham. They also claim more trains will run through the North West if the changes are made, thanks to a new ‘clock-face’ timetable.
But the proposals have been condemned by concerned rail users including Lancaster MP Ben Wallace, Green councillor John Whitelegg and the Lancaster Rail Users Group.
Mr Wallace says he cannot support “a Cross County franchise that cuts out the West Cost Stations north of Crewe all the way to Glasgow,” arguing ”direct access from Glasgow to the South Coast and South West is an important part of the economic needs of the Region.”
The MP has asked that the proposal be amended to include some direct, through trains similar to services operated by Virgin Cross Country today.
Questions about the proposals have also been raised in the House of Lords, by Labour peer Lord Clark of Windermere.
“We will still have three trains per hour but they will probably be close together,” Cumbria Council’s passenger transport manager Graham Whiteley told the North West Enquirer. “The whole thing has been constructed top-down without any regard for passengers needs and the travel needs of the area.
“Birmingham is about the worst place in the country you could ask someone to change trains,” he added, an opinion echoed by John Whitelegg.
“This is all about increasing profits to railway companies and dismissing passenger comfort and convenience,” the councillor told Virtual-Lancaster. “I think these proposed changes are dreadful and I oppose them.
“Changing at Birmingham New Street is a pretty dreadful experience and it will deter many travellers. This will put more people on already overcrowded roads and add to environmentally damaging air transport.
“The plans are discriminatory and damaging to the elderly, parents with young children and people with mobility difficulties or people who just can't run very fast with suitcases!”
“How will Birmingham cope with the extra demand,” asks Ben Wallace, clearly concerned the already-busy station will become a monstrous bottleneck. “Do they plan an expansion of the station or capital investment to lengthen the approach tracks to fit with new longer trains?”
“How can this possibly be of benefit to the consumer,” Lord Clark asked in the House of Lords, “and to passengers who enjoy the privilege of travelling on those through-trains to the south coast?”
“The whole idea of cross-country trains was to set up direct routes to places like Plymouth, Southampton and Bournemouth from Glasgow (and WCML stops through the NW) and Edinburgh / Aberdeen,” says John Whitelegg. “This was and is a really good idea and it is clearly not in the interest of the passenger to abandon the concept.
“The basic problems is still the dog's dinner of railway privatisation and we must return railways to public control (which is Green Party policy).”
Condemning a lack of information to support the DfT’s arguments, Lancaster RUG has formally objected to the proposals, arguing against the current proposals under which Cross Country services would be withdrawn from the West Coast Mail Line north of Crewe.
“In the DfT ‘New Cross Country Franchise’ document, it states, ‘A key characteristic of the Cross Country service is therefore the provision of through journey opportunities of Inter-City quality,” RUG’s chairman Mr Machin points out in a letter to Passenger Focus in Manchester. “How does the withdrawal of the Cross Country network north of Crewe on the West Coat Main Line to Glasgow and Aberdeen achieve the through journey objective?”
Wigan Council is also objecting to the proposals but also says it has been hamstrung in its protest because two studies which influenced the plans, the North West Regional Planning Assessment and the region’s Route Utilisation Strategy, because they have not yet been published.
The DfT claims few people travel from the North West to the South West, but Virgin Trains has refused to reveal any passenger numbers, arguing they were “commercially sensitive.”
Ben Wallace is also concerned at the apparent lack of research behind the proposals from the DfT.
"Bidders will be asked to submit [tenders] based on incomplete information of how the new West Coast Main Line Route Modernisation will impact on services," he argues in his response to the Cross Country Rail Franchise Consultation. “This puts provision in the North West at a disadvantage to the other regional areas. What guarantee is there that the region won’t be disadvantaged because of this?
“It’s suggested that the Trans Pennine Express (TPE) will extend their services via Manchester Airport, North West and on to Glasgow and Edinburgh,” he also says. “There is no guarantee to maintain journey times, only state that they will be similar.”
He has every right to be worried. Only this week, the North West Enquirer reported that once upgrade work ends in December 2008 – more than £6bn over budget and two years late – the West Coast Main Line through Lancashire and Cumbria will continue to be closed for routine maintenance, dealing a massive blow to weekend tourism.
Lancaster RUG surveyed private individuals who used Cross Country services in response to learning of the DfT’s proposals, the business community through the local Chamber of Trade, and the two large education establishments located in Lancaster, namely St. Martin’s College and Lancaster University.
“This is cutting Lancaster off from direct trains to anywhere south of Birmingham,” said one, while another revealed: “My mother (82) is put on the train at Winchester and I meet her at Lancaster - No way could she change at Birmingham”
Comments from the University indicate that their academics use Cross Country services regularly to go to other Universities for research purposes like Oxford, Coventry (for Warwick) and Southampton, and do not relish the prospect of changing at Birmingham.
Many comments about the plans were unprintable, say RUG but one person commented: “This hair brained scheme has been thought up by someone with no brains and lives in London, where travel facilities are vastly superior to those that exist in the North West, and now they want to make them in this area even worse”.

LANCASTER BICYCOLOGISTS
PREPARE FOR CLIMATE CAMP
13/8/06: Dozens of Lancastrians are getting ready to attend the Camp for Climate Action, which will be taking place from 26 August to 4 September in the Megawatt Valley, near Leeds, home of Drax power station, the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide in the UK. And some hardy souls are already planning to cycle there from Lancaster with the Bicycology Tour.
Riding their bikes from London, Bicycology are stopping at eight different towns and cities along the way. On Friday, 25 August, they will be in Market Square (or Friend's Meeting House if it is raining) from 10am to 4pm where they are putting on a roadshow.   People will be able to see a range of unusual bikes, including a tall-bike, a reverse-steer bike, two tandems and a high power tandem-towed 12v sound-system called Pedals.
Dr Bike will also be there offering free 'bicycle health-checks’ and repairs for anyone who brings their bike along with them. Throughout the day there will be bike-beautification workshops and an interactive display of alternative electricity technologies, including a pedal powered game-boy and solar and wind powered generators. To finish the day off there will be a film show in the evening at the Gregson (upstairs) showing bike and climate change related films and documentaries (admission free).
As this is the last day of the Bicycology Tour, there will also be music and one or two drinks - and they welcome people to come and help them celebrate.
The Climate Camp's organisers say it will " be a hub for everything from wind-power workshops and campaign updates to direct action against the worst offenders of the fossil fuel economy.
"Powered by alternative energy, it will be a living demonstration of practical solutions. It will be a chance for the diverse people and projects concerned with climate change to get together and start to make change happen.
"When nuclear power is hailed as the solution to ecological crisis you know there's a problem."
See www.bicycology.org.uk/ and
www.climatecamp.org.uk/ to find out more.

BULKY MATTERS: A NEW SERVICE
12/8/06: Bulky Matters is the name of the new service set up in partnership between Lancaster City Council and local recycling charity Furniture Matters. From June 2006 Bulky Matters began to provide a bulky waste removal service that provides appointments at convenient times and makes collections within seven working days, reuses or recycles at least 40% of all items collected, reuses items to benefit the local community and helps sister charity Furniture Matters to provide training opportunities in subjects such as furniture restoration and domestic appliance repairs.
Mark Davies, Head of City Council (Direct) Services, said: “We are really pleased with how the new service is being received. We've had loads of phone calls from happy customers saying how delighted they are with the service and the staff who provide the service. People have also rung in to say how pleased they are that items that would otherwise have been crushed and landfilled are now either reused or recycled.
The Bulky Matters service is available to all householders within the district so if you've got items that you want to dispose of request a collection by ringing the council's customer service centre on 01524 582491.

IOC LOBBY AGAINST CABINET CENTROS DECISION
11/8/06: Following the decision by the Overview & Scruting Committee (OSC) to call in the Council Cabinet decision of 25 July to sign a Planning Development Agreement with Centros Miller, the It's Our City group would like to persuade the OSC to send this matter back to the full Council. They urge you to write to Councillors on the Overview & Scrutiny Committee and the Council Cabinet.
Sample letters can again be found on the It's Our City website at
www.itsourcity.org.uk/CanDo/CouncillorLetter1.htm
The Overview & Scrutiny Committee meets on Wednesday 16 August at 6pm at Morecambe Town Hall.
Members of the public may attend and there will be an opportunity for them to voice their concerns to the committee.
The Council Cabinet next meets on Thursday 17 August at 10am at Lancaster Town Hall. It's Our City are having an information stall in Market Square on Saturday 12 August from 11-1pm.

CAN YOU GIVE A CAT A REAL HOME?
11/8/06: Local animal rehoming centre Animal Care, based in Scotforth, Lancaster, have many cats and kittens looking for homes. At present there are over 40 adult cats and kitten onsite looking for their new permanent homes and over 60 on the waiting list waiting for a space to become available. If you can offer life long love to a cat in need please please visit the sanctuary any day of the week including weekends between 11am-3pm. Alternatively ring 01524 65495 for further details. All cats and kittens are neutered, fully vaccinated, treated for worms and fleas and microchipped.
Animal Care is a local charity who presently receive no outside funding to help with their £150,000+ a year expenses so if you can help by giving a home to one of their animals or in any other way please do.

LANCASTRIANS PROTEST GOVERNMENT COMPLICITY IN SLAUGHTER OF LEBANESE PEOPLE

10/8/06: For the last two Saturdays running Lancastrians have gathered in Market Square in solidarity with with a wave of protests all over the world against the bombing of the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza by Israeli forces. Over 100,000 people demonstrated in London, and in Tel-Aviv, Israel 5000 people gathered to demonstrate - (a hugely nostalgic event - at the last peace rally in Tel- Aviv, the dove-ish prime minister, Itzak Rabin, was assassinated by a student from a US-funded zionist fundamentalist centre.) All are calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. In Lancaster a number of protestors took part in a 'die-in' while others stood in silence holding banners demanding an end to the bombing of Lebanon and Gaza. They collected signatures for a petition to be handed to MP Ben Wallace, as well as getting signatures for letters to be sent to Tony Blair, who, in keeping with the US / Israeli line in the UN, has consistently opposed the imposition of an immediate ceasefire.
The demonstration reflected the range of people living
in Lancaster, bringing together Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians, people with young children, older people, teachers and young activists. They came together in a common voice to express their shock at the actions of Israel, and to condemn the British government's inexplicable complicity with the killing of hundreds of innocent civilians.
"As an Israeli living in Lancaster" said Michal Narman"I am appalled by the aggression of the Israeli State in Lebanon and the British Government's support of these actions"
Tony Parsons said the present violence "confirmed the need for a solution to the Israel/ Palestine problem, bringing an end to the illegal Occupation which underlies the Middle East conflict"
Atef, a Gazan, now living in Lancaster said "As a Palestinian I'd like to thank the free people in the world for their support - through demonstrations, financial help and emotional support. Your solidarity is a great help to the people suffering in gaza and Lebanon".
The on line petition is available at
www.petitiononline.com/lufop01/petition.html
There will be a planning meeting for further action at 7.30pm on Monday 14 August at Lancaster Friends Meeting House. A fundraiser gig is also scheduled for Tuesday 6 September at the Gregson Centre, Lancaster. S.

COUNCIL SEEKS YOUR VIEWS ON GAMBLING
9/8/06: Lancaster City Council is now consulting on its draft Statement of Gambling Licensing Policy. The Gambling Act 2005 creates a new system of licensing and regulation for commercial gambling in this country and gives councils greater responsibility for licensing premises for gambling.  
The draft gambling licensing policy can be seen on Lancaster City Council’s website:  www.lancaster.gov.uk/consultation
To obtain a copy by email, contact: licensing@lancaster.gov.uk or tel: 01524 582033.
The document is also available in reception areas at the following places: Lancaster and Morecambe Town Halls and Palatine Hall, Lancaster.
Responses should be submitted in writing to the Head of Legal and Human Resources, Town Hall, Lancaster LA1 1PJ, or by email: to licensing@lancaster.gov.uk by no later than 16 October 2006.

NEW £100 FINE FOR PUTTING RUBBISH OUT EARLY

8/8/06: You can now be fined £100 for not putting your rubbish out on the right day.
The Clean Neighbourhoods act introduced a new power from 1 April 06, so that authorised local authority employees can issue a Fixed Penalty Notice for 'failure to comply with specified collection arrangements for household, commercial and industrial waste.'
This is when people are not really dumping rubbish, they're just putting it out in the street after the collection or too far in advance of the collection, and this new offence can be given a FPN.  The amount of the FPN in this case is £100.
If you don’t know when your collection day is you can ring Lancaster City Council’s customer service centre on 01524 582491.
As part of a joint initiative to clamp down on crime and grime, Police Community Support Officers and council officers will be out advising people next week (beginning August 14) on what they should and shouldn’t be doing with their rubbish – and issuing Fixed Penalty Notices where necessary.
Anyone putting their rubbish out in the street after the collection or too far in advance of the collection can now be fined £100.
The Crime and Grime Beat Sweeps start in August and will take place in several grot spots around the district over the coming year.
The clean sweeps take four weeks to complete and begins with intelligence gathering in the first phase. The Police, Fire and Rescue Service, Street Wardens and Lancaster City Council officers will undertake an '‘Environmental Visual Audit’ to identify problem areas and gather intelligence for the second week of the programme which deals with enforcement.

CANAL CORRIDOR DECISION 'CALLED IN'
7/8/06: Lancaster City Council Cabinet's decision to sign a planning deal with Centros Miller (CM) for the Canal Corridor development site has been called in by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC). Complaints were made to the committee that the company has been exempted from any competitive tendering process and that no other ideas had been invited. Also that the decision was taken in defiance of the Real Planning survey of 2003 and without Cabinet having seen the results of a residents' survey carried out by CM, which was supposed to be so very crucial to the decision-making process. Other issues are that the "financial implications did not take into account the possibility that losses will be greater than presented as a result of the abstraction of car parking revenues across the city by the 800 new spaces on this development (500 more than presently available). This option should have been included with an appropriate risk assessment in the information presented to cabinet.
The decision was, moreover, based on an inadequate consideration of the potential damage to Morecambe’s regeneration ambitions, to the financial viability of Lancaster market and the impact of extra traffic on traffic congestion on the gyratory system."
Prior to the meeting Cabinet Chair Ian Barker (who voted in favour of the CM deal) denied CM's PR Consultant Steve Bryson's claim that he was Centros' 'Champion' on the City Council. "My mind is not yet made up nor will it be until I have all the evidence." S.
Read more about this development
See the OSC briefing relating to the call-in decision.

NEW BROOM AT LANCASTER CITY FC

3/8/06: In a Centenary year disrupted by events off the pitch new investment has brought fresh hope to Lancaster City fans. Jayne Entwistle rounds up a dramatic closed season and looks forward to a promising year ahead.
Read her 2006-2007 Season Preview.

ROAD GROUP PLANS SPONSORED WALK
1/8/06: Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe is planning a cross bay walk to raise funds for their campaign against the Northern Link - now being called the 'N6' by some of its supporters (perhaps they're hoping for six lanes of tarmac and concrete).
the date has yet to be arranged, but please email Andrea Brook brookam@tiscali.co.uk before 13 August if you, friends or family would like to take part. If you are unable to participate in the walk, perhaps could you provide transport, refreshments or sponsorship for the walkers.

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next stories: 16 - 31 August 2006
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