Previous stories: 16 - 31 January 2007

COUNCIL TACKLING HOMELESSNESS - AND CLIMATE CHANGE
15/2/07: Lancaster City Council will be asked to do more to tackle homelessness and climate change in new budget proposals to be put to the Cabinet next week.
Leader of the Council, Councillor Ian Barker revealed these new proposals after a meeting with coalition colleagues yesterday morning, and says tacking homelessness is one of the council's top priorities, "funding emergency accommodation for homeless young people in Portland Street.
"We have been working on these proposals for some time in conjunction with the YMCA and had hoped to get funding from Supporting People," Ian reveals. "Unfortunately our bid was not successful. I am delighted that we have been able to find funding from our own resources to help some young people at a time of crisis in their lives."
"We also intend to replace lost Supporting People funding to help people who are affected by regeneration proposals in Morecambe's West End," Ian continues. "We find some very vulnerable people in some of the HMOs who need support if they are to overcome problems in their lives and maintain tenancies in future. This is work we have been doing very successfully and we were disappointed by the cuts in funding to the district."
On a wider issue getting plenty of national and international attention, Ian said the Council also intends strengthen the itswork on climate change. "We have already set ambitious targets for reducing our CO2 emissions," he says. "As part of the budget, we established a £100,000 programme of reducing our energy use. We have also agreed to work with other councils across Lancashire on this. However, we need to pull all this work together, get a clear climate change strategy with targets and make sure the big changes we all want happen. That's why we will be bringing forward new proposals to strengthen our sustainability team."
"We have been able to fund these new proposals by efficiencies we have made, largely because we have improved our insurance claims record and reduced our premiums," Ian explains. "I'm really pleased that these gains will result in improved services for vulnerable people and a contribution to tackling one of the most urgent problems the planet faces."

PUBLIC INQUIRY ANNOUNCED INTO M6 LINK ROAD

9/2/07, updated 15/2/07: After a number of weeks of scrutiny Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Ruth Kelly has decided that Lancashire County Council’s decision to grant itself planning permission for the Heysham M6 Link road will be tested at a public inquiry.
No date has yet been set for the inquiry although it is likely to take place later in 2007. The inquiry will be a chance for all parties to make their case in front of an inspector who will after hearing the evidence make a recommendation to the Secretary of State.
The Leader of Lancaster City Council, Councillor Ian Barker said:
“I welcome the news that there is to be a public inquiry. While I support, with some reservations, the County Council’s Plans for a Northern Link, I recognise that there important issues that need to be tested in public and an Inquiry is the best way to do this.
“It is my view that the district needs a Heysham M6 Link and that the Western Route is ruled out on environmental grounds. The Northern Link needs to be accompanied by sustainable transport measures such as improved public transport and park and ride measures. The County has made a start with the announcement of park and ride at Junction 34 but I would like to see more.
”We also need to explore thoroughly the issue of a link bridge to Luneside West to speed public transport between Lancaster and Morecambe.
“What I do hope is that an early date is picked and that the inquiry is conducted expeditiously so that the years of uncertainty can be brought to an end.”
Obtaining planning permission is one of the main statutory approvals needed before the Government will consider whether to provide funding for the scheme.  Decisions on funding road schemes are taken only after entry into the Government's road building programme and this requires detailed appraisal of value for money  and consideration of other criteria.
Support for the Northern Link Road Scheme may be melting away following a surprise statement by County Cllr Tony Martin, Cabinet member for Sustainable Development and the man in charge the proposal for a new highway across North Lancaster residential areas and green belt currently estimated to cost £137m (and the rest).
Speaking to the Lancashire Evening Post following a toxic chemical spill on the M6 last Friday which left traffic jammed for hours as thousands of commuters filtered through reduced lanes Cllr Martin said "the number of cars has doubled between 1983 and 2003 and it is going to do the same by 2023. That's a problem you cannot fix by just putting in more roads or widening the ones that are there.
"Public transport is the future, whether we like it or not, unless anyone else wants to come up with a better system, which would probably be in science fiction territory."
Earlier this month a parliamentary question posed by MP Geraldine Smith to the Department of Trade and Industry discovered that the government is now considering paying £45,000 as a contribution towards a study into an integrated transport solution for the Lancaster and Morecambe District to be carried out by Lancashire County Council.
This news comes after Lancashire County Council approved its own plan to build a £137 million dual carriageway across the same district which would create embankments over 40 feet high towering over residential areas, wipe out 173 acres of farmland in the Green Belt, including many veteran trees and hedgerows and, according to the Council's own figures, would increase carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 24,000 tons per year.
This decision was taken just two days after the publication of the ominous Stern Review reporting on the potential costs of unchecked global warming. Since then the County Council has announced a major campaign to tackle climate change; it has outlined far-reaching and long-term proposals to tackle rising temperatures caused by carbon emissions and pollution. Such a threat needs bold action, the Council says; a budget of £1.8 million is promised.
It was also revealed earlier this month (see report) that a number of new road schemes across the country were being supported by local authorities in contravention of the rules requiring that adequate studies be made of suitable alternatives and it transpired as a result of Ms Smith's questions that the only study of alternatives the County Council could produce was done 14 years previously in relation to an earlier project. Campaigners are still demanding a Public Enquiry into the scheme.
“The plan is destructive and flawed,” said David Gate, chair of Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe (TSLM), an independent campaign group who favour non destructive alternatives to road building. “Lancashire County Council tried to rush through the hastily conceived plan, just to grab regional funding, without scrutiny and consultation on the detail.
"But people have reacted angrily, and several hundreds of them have written letters to the Government pointing out the road's failings, demanding an independent public inquiry. We are pleased that the Government has seen the limitations of the scheme and agreed to their demand. “ See www.heyshamm6link.info.

GREENS: CANAL CORRIDOR ALTERNATIVE PLAN

Download a copy of the Green Plan for the Canal Corridor Development or click on the above image for a larger version.

9/2/07: Lancaster Green Party is proposing a new regeneration and development plan for the Lancaster Canal Corridor site, as an alternative to the Centros Miller proposal that is on the table with Lancaster City Council, despite never having been offered for competitive tendering.
Since the original plans were submitted they have been modified by Centros to increase the retail space from 30,000 to 39,000 square metres - almost double the current level. The massive increase in traffic that planners estimate will result from the proposal has still not been addressed, although a Park + Ride scheme is now being considered – the same Park + Ride scheme that councillors rejected as unworkable when it was proposed as an alternative congestion solution to the link road!
Of considerable concern is the fact that this development, which is designed to create a new town centre in competition with the current one, will belong in total to Centros Miller for 250 years! Except that once it is completed they will sell it on as is usual with their developments.
So we do not know who will run our city when our great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren are born. But it won’t be anyone elected. The council want to hand the choice over to Centros. This big, rich company has an amazing amount of clout with our Council and its officers. You can read more about the Centros plans here.
Lancaster Green Party has been working for months on alternative plans and believes it has a fully workable solution. In 2005 Real Planning for Lancaster carried out a comprehensive consultation of residents and more recently It's Our City have been consulting people on the current Centros Miller proposals. The Council Planning department also has a planning brief for the area which highlight issues that any proposals need to address.
All these factors have been drawn on in developing the Green Plan plus neighbourhood planning techniques developed from the work of Architect Christopher Alexander, which are currently being used by Medway Council to plan an area of the town of Strood.

The introduction to their proposal reads: “The area between Moor Lane, St Leonards Gate and the Canal has been run down and blighted for too long. Successive developers have put forward plans that have been dominated by large shopping centres. They have offered far too little for the local community and for the residents of the district.
" We believe that the current ‘Castle View’ proposal from Centros Miller is more of the same and not only threatens the viability of shops in the city centre, but does nothing to preserve the character of Lancaster.
"A different approach is needed. One that looks to conserve the best parts of the area. One that provides a high quality architectural setting for the Grand & Dukes theatres. One that complements and supports the current shopping centre, rather than competing with it. And one that looks to the needs of the local community instead of those of out-of-town developers.
"We put forward our Green Plan for the canal corridor as one possible alternative to show what such a development might look like. "
You can download a .pdf copy of the Green Plan here.
Cllr John Barry said: “The Green Party has come up with alternative plans and will be introducing them at a Public Meeting on 20 February. Briefly these include retail, office and workshop employment sites, housing, a much larger public green space and retention of historic buildings that Centros plans to demolish. They are practical and affordable and will be much better for the city.” The meeting will be on Tuesday 20 February at 7.30pm at St Walburgs Chapel (on Balmoral Road behind the Cathedral), Lancaster and all are welcome.
See www.lancastergreeparty.org.uk.

9/11: THE LAST MAN OUT
9/02/07: I’m almost afraid of writing about this campaign - since I reported on it before I’ve been accused of supporting anti-semitism, branded a loony – it’s a can of worms all right.
There is a conspiracy theory and then there’s a conspiracy theory about the conspiracy theory – and so it goes on. So let’s just stick to what can be proven, and steer clear of the axe-grinding and the name-calling.
I saw William Rodriguez speak last night at St Martin's College at the invitation of the 9/11 Truth Campaign UK. He was the janitor of the twin towers on 9/11. He talked about events on the day, and every word he said can be corroborated, and I believe him.
I’m not going to repeat it all, except to draw attention to the first person he rescued, Felipe David, the first casualty out of the towers on 9/11. Felipe suffered 30% burns in a major explosion, in the basement. He managed to climb to a higher level to find people were still reeling from the force of the explosion beneath, when they then heard a second explosion happen high above – as the first plane hit the building. It was only when his rescuer, William Rodriguez, had carried him up to ground level and out of the building that they found out about the plane. Prior to that they guessed that a main generator had exploded in the basement.
Rodriguez speaks passionately about survivors and the victims’ families being continuously exploited for anti-democratic ends which they publicly and consistently objected to – not only the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but also the wholesale abolition of hard won civil liberties that has taken place in the US and the UK.
He does not attribute blame but he speaks articulately and specifically about survivors’ testimony being repeatedly suppressed and excluded from the 9/11 commission report – the commission that only came about because they strenuously campaigned for it.
And he is passionately angry about the fact that the Federal Aviation Authority erased the tape recording of radio transmissions from the flight that allegedly hit the Pentagon and then de-materialised, before it was made available to any investigation or enquiry, on the pretext that hearing it would only cause pain to the victim’s relatives.
“This was an illegal suppression of evidence that was never punished or even investigated. If you lose someone close to you, do not let anyone ever tell you that you don’t have any right to know, or to try to find out, how it happened.”
There’s a lot more – too much to cover here.
I have not heard a word of anti-semitism at either of the two meetings I’ve been to, which involved films and speakers (I’ve heard elsewhere of a conspiracy to blame it all on Zionists, apparently because of a film called Loose Change, which I haven’t seen, made by two US teenagers who have since concluded that they made some errors, and another to blame it on apocalypse-seeking Christian far-right fundamentalists but I’ve only heard about them from people who are opposed to those alleged conspiracies, so I really don’t want to get into all that. Let’s face it, I also heard the Bush administration blame it on a bunch of named ‘Islamic terrorists’ who mostly turned out to be alive and innocent.).
The only person in this campaign that I have heard actually attribute blame is David Shaylor, the ex-MI5 whistleblower, who points to long-standing links between the CIA and Al-Quaida (originally CIA-funded) and tells us what we already know, that the US needs a lot of oil, more per capita than any other nation; that as global oil supplies dwindle it would be unthinkable for the US to find itself without oil while potentially competing powers (such as Iran) still had significant reserves – and equally unthinkable for the people of the US to adapt to alternative forms of energy / lifestyle in the available timespan if there was any way to avoid it; that a clique of oil industry hawks in the Bush administration had for years been openly advocating military intervention in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran to secure the world’s major oil reserves for the US. (They hadn’t forseen that doing so would bring about a coalition of opposition and that this would become in due course potentially the most appallingly costly and self-destructive mission the US would ever attempt). They had referred explicitly to the need for a ‘Pearl Harbour’ event to overcome opposition to war.
9/11 instantly became that Pearl Harbour.
See www.911truthcampaign.net.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FIDDLER!
8/2/07: Why should pubs be able to have a jukebox playing as loud as you like – but need a license before they can have live music or even a sing-song? If you’d rather have real organic music then there’s forms to fill and red tape to unknot (granted not as much as a couple of years ago when it was prohibitively expensive) but canned music is completely unregulated.
This is particularly important for a city such as Lancaster that develops an unusual amount of musical talent – depending on venues throughout the UK to make a living. There’s a petition on the Number 10 website asking for deregulation. Please support one of our biggest local exports and sign it at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing/.

REPRESENTING LANCASHIRE YOUTH: LUDUS DANCE

8/2/07: Ludus Dance is delighted to be representing their home county of Lancashire at the North West Youth Dance festival ‘heat’ for Youth Dance at The Charter Theatre in Preston on the 18 February 2007.
Three winners from this selection event will go on to represent the North West at the prestigious National Youth Dance Festival at the Lowry, Salford on 11 July 2007 where they will be joined by another 10 youth dance groups from across the Country.

The National Youth Dance Festival, organised by Youth Dance England, is a sensational six day festival where the qualifying youth groups will work with a team of professional dance artists experiencing life as a professional dancer. They will be exposed to new choreographic processes, dance genres and workshops that look at personal health and career progression.

Of the eight dance groups performing in the North West ‘heat’, two of them are led by Ludus artists. The first is the Ludus Youth Dance Company, who are hoping to mirror last year’s successful performance at the National Festival. The Ludus Youth Dance Company (LYDC) offers young people aged between 14 – 25 years of age the opportunity to further develop their interest in dance as well as give them opportunities to perform in professional environments and work with leading dancers and choreographers. Jenny Reeves a member of LYDC said, on hearing the news, “It's the next step forwards to an exciting future in dance!"

The second Ludus group to be selected is Integr-8. Based at Moorfield School in Preston Integr-8 offers young people from both special and mainstream schools the chance to take part in creating and performing new and innovative dance.

Hannah Robertshaw, from Ludus Dance, explained: “It’s great to have so much talent in Lancashire and the festival gives an opportunity to share this.”

Alongside this national festival, a Regional Festival Programme will be led by Ludus Dance, to leave a lasting legacy for Youth Dance in the North West. A feature of this year’s event will be a project to bring together North West schools/groups and the youth dance groups attending the festival. The regional festival will also provide practitioner training to develop the youth dance work force in the North West, with courses and events for leaders and teachers to introduce new areas of working practices and skills.

Sarah Stimson North West Youth Dance Regional Co-ordinator commented “It’s great to be a part of this exciting partnership between Ludus Dance and Youth Dance England. This ensures that young people are given the opportunity to get involved at a local level whilst offering progression routes onto Regional and National activities.”

The regional ‘heat’ takes place on 18 February 2007, 7.30pm at The Charter Theatre, Preston. Tickets cost £6 or £4 for concessions and are available from the Guild Hall / Charter Theatre Box Office on 0845 3442012

For more details regarding Youth Dance England’s initiatives please contact Sarah Stimson (Youth Dance England Youth Dance Co-ordinator) based at Ludus Dance on 01524 849994. See also www.ludusdance.org.

BOBBIES ON BICYCLES...
8/2/07: Police Officers on bikes are set to step up patrols in the rural areas.
The move comes after the Lancaster Neighbourhood Policing Team took delivery of the specially-prepared bikes funded by Lancaster City Council’s Cycle Demonstration Town Project and now Police Community Support Officer Tom Owen can now be seen travelling regularly around his patch which includes Cockerham, Glasson Dock, Galgate and Dolphinholme visiting schools and businesses as well as offering advice to local residents.
The bikes will also be used by other community officers such as Castle Community Beat Manager PC Mark Finch who goes on two wheels to tour his area on a regular basis.
Neighbourhood Policing Sergeant Martin Pearson said : “While Tom covers the rural areas Mark is often to be seen on his area which covers areas such as the quayside and the cycle track.
“The district has a large amount of cycle paths and cycle users and the new bikes will improve the policing of those areas.
"It is apparent that a number of criminals favour bikes as their preferred means of transport and this will assist us in targeting those individuals.
"I would very much like to thank the project and City Council for providing us with this opportunity.’’
Coun Gina Dowding, member of the Cycling Demonstration Town Project Board, said: "It’s great that through working with the police, the Council can make bikes and cycling more visible and therefore a more mainstream form of transport than has been the case in recent years."
Lancashire Constabulary are providing match funding by supplying staffing patrols and specialist cycling uniform clothing.

GET READY FOR THE 3RD COMMUNITY FESTIVAL
8/2/07: Planning is well underway for the Third Community Festival that will be held at Williamson Park on Sunday 3 June 2007 between 1pm and 5.30pm.
Organizers are inviting all local Community Groups to get involved by organizing displays, stalls, fundraising activities etc. for their individual groups. The Festival is being widely publicized and offers a chance to OUR community to showcase itself.
Phil McGrath of the organizing committee is interested in hearing from anyone who wishes to become involved in the Festival. “So far the response has been excellent,” said Phil “We’ve already signed up a Vintage Car Rally, Paintballing Range, Smoke Tents and Fire Appliances, Music Groups, Children’s Entertainers and much more! Space is also beginning to be booked for various activities from parachute games to Cricket.
The Festival gives a perfect opportunity for the community to advertise Summer Activity Programmes, recruit new members, showcase their project, recruit volunteers etc. etc.
There will be the Second RACE OF THE MASCOTS during the day and organisers are currently recruiting for the race, hopefully with representatives of local sports teams, Local Groups etc. The race will follow a route through Williamson Park and the winner will be presented with a trophy. Last years champion was the SureStart Sunflower, followed by the Recycling Mole in 2nd and Fireman Sam 3rd!!
Anyone wishing to get involved in this years Festival is asked to contact:
Phil McGrath, General Secretary, Lancaster and District YMCA, Heart of the City, Fleet Square, LA1 1HA.
tel. 01524 32737. fax 01524 389184.
See www.lancasterymca.co.uk

RESIDENTS CHALLENGE GOLGOTHA ROAD PHONE MAST
8/2/07, updated 15/2/07: H3G are proposing a 40 foot 3G phone mast on Golgotha Road in John O'Gaunt, Lancaster. H3G conducted a small-scale consultation where they contacted councillors and a few residents in close proximity. Thanks to a bit of neighbourly networking from Labour councillor Jim Blakely and others, many residents were informed of the proposal and a total of 70 objections and a 240 name petition against the proposal were returned on the survey.
The proposal has not yet been received by the Lancaster City Council planning department, but Jim Blakely told virtual-lancaster he has organised a meeting between H3G and the consultancy firm  to dicuss a  more appropriate site for the phone mast. If you are concerend about the proposal, contact Jim direct at jim@blakelys.co.uk or telephone 01524 388650.

NO TO TRIDENT MEETING TONIGHT
7/2/07: A Public Meeting will take place tonight, Wednesday 7 February, at 7.30pm at Lancaster Town Hall in opposition to the government's plans to begin a new Trident nuclear weapons programme and to call for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
Speakers will include Walter Wolfgang (CND VC and Labour Party NEC), Chris Nineham (Stop-the-War Coalition) and John Whitelegg (Green Party)
The topic for discussion is how a local campaign can be best developed in the build-up to the National London Demonstration on 24 February.
The organisers explained that this meeting comes at a time when the US is escalating the war in Iraq by sending in a surge of 21000 troops. Already the occupation-fuelled chaos and bloodshed has reached unprecedented levels. According to the Iraqi Interior ministry around 1,000 Iraqi civilians and security personnel were killed last week and at the weekend one bomb killed 130 people.
The shooting down of 4 US military helicopters last week is forcing the hawks to call for a speedier offensive against Baghdad. Col Doug Heckman, an adviser to the Iraqi army told a BBC reporter in Baghdad today, "The new operation would be of a multiple order of magnitude of difference compared with previous offensives. It's going to be much more than this city has ever seen and is going to be a rolling surge".
Meanwhile the US is increasing the pressure on Iran such that an attack seems more and more possible. In echoes of Iraq in 2001, US officials are set to release a dossier claiming evidence of Iran's complicity in attacks on American troops in Iraq.
Six US warships will soon (if not there already) be in the Gulf and Israel is hawking alarmist intelligence around and demanding regime change. The Guadian's Simon Tisdall had this to say on the situation:
"The US 'push back' against Iran comprises many other elements beyond Iraq. Unconfirmed reports suggest Vice-President Dick Cheney has cut a deal with Saudi Arabia to keep oil production up even as prices fall, to undercut Iran's main source of foreign currency. Washington is pursuing expanding, non-UN global financial sanctions against Tehran; encouraging and arming a "new alignment" of Sunni Arab Gulf states; and highlighting Iran's role in "supporting terrorism" in Palestine, where it helps bankroll the Hamas government, and Lebanon, where it backs Hizbullah.
"The US is also deploying powerful naval forces in the Gulf that are of little help in Iraq but could more easily be used to mount air strikes on Iran. Almost any one of these developments might produce a casus belli. And when taken together, despite official protestations, they seem to point in only one direction. The Bush administration, an American commentator suggested, is "once again spoiling for a fight".
Demonstrate 24 February in Central London. Coaches from Lancaster: Tickets £15 waged; £10 unwaged. "The sooner people buy tickets the more coaches we can afford to book." Tickets will be on sale at the meeting and /or please phone 0791 958 7485. For more information check www.stopwar.org.uk or www.cnduk.org

CLIMATE CONSCIOUS TAKE THE PLEDGE

5/2/07: Lancaster Climate Action are celebrating the success of their Pledge Scheme after 34 people signed up, committing themselves to either the Gold or Silver Pledges which involve a promise to either avoid all flights (24 Pledges) or not to take more than two short haul or one long haul flights this year, at their stall in Lancaster City Centre on Saturday 27 January. The group hope to get 100 pledges in total and are planning to present these to the City Council with the challenge to match the Carbon Dioxide savings.
The group positioned their stall outside Thomas Cook travel agents, which, in common with most high-street and internet travel agents, offers flights both within and outside the UK at costs far cheaper than other, less polluting forms of transport.
Flying produces ten times more carbon dioxide per mile than travelling by train and five times more than travelling by car. What's more the CO2 released high up in the atmosphere has a far more damaging effect than that released on the ground.
The number of flights from UK airports is set to grow to a staggering 3 billion by 2010. If this happens this will outweigh any savings made from insulation homes or energy efficiency.
Virtual Lancaster contacted Cooks a fortnight ago via their website to ask them about their policies vis-a-vis flight pollution and its detrimental effect on the global climate. We have yet to receive any reply.
Read more about the Pledge Scheme.
People interested in finding out more or joining the group can contact them on 01524 383012 or info@lancasterclimate.org.uk, or check their website, www.lancasterclimate.org.uk
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 20 Feb at 7.30 in The Basement, under Single Step (78a Penny Street).
You can calculate your own carbon footprint as well as that for particular journeys at www.co2balance.com.
Another helpful (and entertaining) Guardian article on how to do this is at http://tinyurl.com/2m4tf8.

TRUCKING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE
5/2/07: You are invited to the launch of Global Link's new multimedia interactive exhibition "Trucking with Climate Change" which will take place in Market Square, Lancaster on Monday 19 February from 9.30am - 5.30pm. Look for the huge truck trailer!
This exhibition is a fully interactive multimedia event built into a 8.7 by 5.7m trailer. It enables you to look at the problems, processes and future of climate change and is designed for young people and adults. It provides the opportunity to think about several different questions relating to climate change including:
What is climate Change?
What is happening now?
What will happen in the future?
How can we change it?
Each participant walks through 4 different rooms, each explaining about climate change, the problems, the facts and ways that together we can change it. Throughout the trailer the interactions are through film footage, climate change models, computer games and other interactions explaining the processes and problems.
Trucking with climate change is a factual and fun experience combining science and geography and enlightening the participant to renewable energy sources and energy saving. The exhibition was created on the idea that making this generation aware of the problems they may face in the future may make them more inspired to act now.
See www.globallink.org.uk.

BIKE TRAINING
5/2/07: Fancy some cycle training to get yourself ready for the Spring? Then book your place on one of the remaining courses (before the new programme starts again in April). To book or for further information please call Pedal Power on 01524 65328. The courses are:
Introduction to Maintenance (level 1): Thurs 15 Feb (evening).
Cycling for Beginners (level 1a): Sat 17 Feb (10am - 4pm)
Basic Maintenance (level 2): Weds 28 Feb (evening)

COUNCIL CASH FOR COMMUNITY ARTS PROJECTS
5/2/07: Are you a voluntary or not-for-profit group planning an arts project this year?
If so you could apply to Lancaster City Council for a grant of up to £500 to support your activities.
The grants scheme, named, ’Community Arts Projects’ has been revised from the previous Project Festival Grants scheme. There are three opportunities to apply in each financial year, with deadlines of March 15, August 15 and December 1. The total fund available this year is £10,200.
Applicants will be awarded 75% of the overall grant requested up-front, the remaining 25% will be released on the completion of monitoring and evaluation of the project.
To date, previous community projects that have been funded by the City Council have levered in significant funds totalling £500,000 in the last three years.
Success stories of this fund include the West End Festival, Kite Festival, This Big (Morecambe Dance and Film) and Inside Out (Boarding Arts Project) in Morecambe. NCBI (Dignity of Difference), Abolished (Project examining the Lancaster Slave Trade) Lancaster Footlights (Bring it On youth project), Lancaster Spotlight (Spotlight Club), Deep Cabaret (Flocking) and Williamson Park in Lancaster. Glasson Dock Festival, Green Close Studios (Viva Mexico) in the rural areas have also been given grant support.
For more information about Community Arts Project grant please visit www.lancaster.gov.uk/artsdevelopment where you can download an application form, or contact Arts Development Officer, Euan Smith on 01524 582857 or email esmith@lancaster.gov.uk to request an application pack.

Previous stories: 16 - 31 January 2007