Previous stories: 16 - 30 April 2007
Next stories: 16 - 31 May 2007

COUNTY COUNCIL CUTS KIDS PLAY
15/5/07 by John Freeman: Lancashire County Council has announced savage cuts to a range of schemes that local Green councillors say have played a huge part in reducing anti social behaviour.
Green Party City and County Councillors have reacted angrily to plans to slash the budget for half-term and holiday diversionary activities in the Marsh area from £18,000 per year in 2006/7 to under £4,000 in 2007/8. This means that instead of providing six weeks of additional activities in the summer, only six afternoons can be provided.
The changes followed the merger of the County Council Youth Service with its Connexions service and City councillor Jon Barry, who reperesents Castle Ward, feels the cuts are a huge mistake.
“These holiday activities have proved absolutely vital in reducing anti-social behaviour in the Marsh area," he explained. "The police and local residents have noticed the difference. But by cutting the budget to a fifth of its original size, we run the risk that these problems will come back again with additional costs to the police and local councils.
"This decision makes neither social nor economic sense to the taxpayer.”
Green Party County Councillor Chris Coates is setting up a meeting with Lancashire Youth and Community Chief, John Goffee to demand that the money is reinstated.
“I thought that we were supposed to be tackling the causes of crime?" says Chris. "We've made great steps on the Marsh in recent years, but silly decisions like this are a real set back. Unless these cuts are reversed, as trustees of the community centre, we will have no choice but to reduce the activities that we provide in holidays.”
“The County Council figures are based on providing activities to an average of ten young people. However, we get an average of 40 young people attending our sessions.”

WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO HIDE?
14/5/07 by John Freeman: In a shocking example of how local democracy has been quietly subverted by government regulation and legal process, a local councillor has been denied sight of the agreement between the City Council and developers Centros Miller.
Sarah Taylor, the Council’s head of Legal Services wrote to Bulk Ward's recently re-elected Green councillor John Witelegg on 11th May and said his request to read the full development agreement with Centros Miller had been rejected.
In the letter, Taylor explains that the full legal agreement and any side agreements or side letters with Centros Miller regarding the Canal Corridor Development are not public documents as they contain information which is confidential and of a commercially sensitive nature.
According to Taylor, a councillor’s right of access to Council documents is limited at common law to such documents as are reasonably necessary to enable the member to carry out his duties.
"There is no right to what is referred to in the case law as 'a roving commission' to examine documents," she explains. "At this stage, when no appointments have been made to Cabinet or to the Committees of the Council, I do not feel that it is possible to establish that you have any duties that would reasonably require you to see the documents , as you are not in the position of making or scrutinising any decision with regard to the Agreement.
"It seems to me that at this time, a request to view a document could only relate to your need to see that document for the purposes of your position as ward member," she contines. "In all the circumstances, I cannot accept that the role of representing the interests of the residents of your ward would justify a need for you to have sight of the detailed and confidential arrangements between the Council and its development partner, responsibility for which falls within the remit of the Cabinet. On this basis, therefore, I do not consider that you have a legal right to view the documents."
"I'm appalled at this decision," says Councillor Whitelegg. "I was elected with over 1000 votes precisely because my constituents want me to scrutinise this secret agreement with Centros Miller.
It's a very sad day for democracy when councillors are denied access to information by council staff. This brings the Council into disrepute and will be widely condemned by Bulk Ward residents”
Although the full agreement remains confidential, Legal Services have revealed they are however in the process of drawing up a version of the controversial agreement which they explain can be made available to the public "in order to be as open and transparent as possible, whilst at the same time meeting the Council’s legal obligations with regard to confidentiality."
They have not said when this edited copy of the legal agreement - excising parts of the contract which are confidential or commercially sensitive and are therefore exempt under the Freedom of information Act 2000 - will be available to both councillors or local tax payers.

BABY DEE TO PLAY AT YOHO
10/5/07: This Saturday night Little Argument With Myself (LAWM) promotions presents to the people of Lancaster  Baby Dee! - Legendary singer/songwriter from NYC and classically trained harpist. She is best known for her work with Antony and the Johnsons (playing harp on the first album).
The night also features top notch local support from New Hawks, Ruby in the Dust and Stuart Anthony.
Having spent time as musical director for the Catholic Church in the Bronx, in the circus as a bilateral hermaphrodite at Coney Island and in the Kamikaze Freak Show touring Europe, Baby Dee then became a familiar sight on the streets of New York riding a giant tricycle with harp attached.
Themes of love, nature and precious childhood are expressed with a naked fragility which is enchanting and very slightly uncomfortable. "Truly gorgeous music" -Foxy Digitalis.
From her heartfelt harp dirges to her salacious accordion tunes everyone should see Baby Dee at least once in their life....!
New Hawks are the brain child of Lancaster based Dan Haywood, who has a lengthy tribe including violin and cello to flesh out his psychedelic folk dreams, signed to Manchester's esteemed Timbreland Records.
Ruby in the Dust are a brilliant relatively new local band whose sound is a mix of cabaret, bar room jazz, and blues with Spanish and Arabic influences, with lyrics ranging from sassy through quirky to romantic.
Stuart Anthony is a local singer songwriter currently working on his first solo album, taking influence from Nick Drake, Tim and Jeff Buckley and Bob Dylan.
Doors 8pm, £4 – Advance Tickets are Recommended and may be bought here  www.wegottickets.com/location/LAWM
Further Information: www.lawm.co.uk.

LANCASTER MAN KILLED IN IRAQ
8/5/07: As violence continues in Iraq with hundreds affected daily and an estimated civilian body count of over 62,000, the Army has confirmed that the latest British soldier to die was Private Kevin Thompson from Lancaster.
21-year-old Kevin, a member of the Royal Logistics Corp, had been taking supplies to an Army base in Basra when his convoy was hit. Seriously wounded, he was flown to the UK for treatment but died on Sunday at Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital with with his parents and fiancée Lucy at his bedside. The Lancashire Evening Post reports that his father Mark has said that the situation in Iraq had become a "pointless war", adding: "I could strangle Tony Blair. So many young men have died fighting in Iraq when they shouldn't be there in the first place."
He added: "My only consolation is that Kevin died a hero."
Kevin's mother Theresa, said: "It's the news every parent of a soldier dreads. Tony Blair has a lot to answer for."
Private Thompson's younger brother Andrew, 18, is also a serving soldier and followed him into the Royal Logistics Corps. He also leaves behind two younger sisters, Nicola and Jade, and his fiancée Lucy.
Private Thompson's troop commander Lieutenant Chris Heyworth told reporters: "This was his first operational tour and he had made a name for himself as a hard-working and uncomplaining soldier who just got on with the job no matter how hard the conditions.
"He could put a smile on the face of anyone in the Troop and we all liked his company and the way he conducted himself in such a professional manner."
Lieutenant Colonel Neil Lewis, his Commanding Officer in the UK, described Kevin as "an extremely popular soldier who loved his job".

ELECTIONIONEERING MADNESS...
8/5/07: While party leader David Cameron cycles to parliament and is apparently embracing green politics, our spies in Skerton report that the Tory candidate in the recent elections delivered all his leaflets by car (a Jaguar). He was seen stopping no less than five times on one street and getting out to post his campaign literature (advising people to vote for him because he was a Conservative with no information whatsover about Tory policy), rather than stopping the car and walking the length of a very small close!

FRENCH MARKET'S MORECAMBE MOVE SUCCESS
8/5/07: The French and Continental Market proved a massive success in Morecambe this weekend virtually sold out of stock over the weekend, despite the mixed weather - and will return to the town later this year.
Traders set up their 120 metres of stalls at Morecambe Festival Market on Saturday morning in the glorious sunshine and it was completely mobbed all day. Foodstuffs including olives, cheeses, breads, dried sausages and chocolates -- with the added bonus of Polish breads and German bratwurst sausages -- were soon selling quickly, along with other items such as soap and bags.
Although the weather turned on Sunday and was unpredictable on Monday, this didn't deter either the customers or the Continental traders - they battened down the hatches and hung onto their gazebos truly experiencing the great British Bank Holiday weather!
The French traders, who had travelled hundreds of miles to be with the Festival Market Traders to offer customers "something different" had almost sold out by Monday evening and this, coupled with the torrential rain and windy conditions on the Tuesday morning resulted in a smaller Market to finish off their four days stay.
Rebecca's Market Café reported their best Bank Holiday Weekend's trade ever and most traders felt that the visiting market had brought more customers to the market and to Morecambe in general on a Bank Holiday weekend when there is usually lots of other things going on.
The French Market traders were so pleased with their visit they have asked to come back in August and for the May Day Bank Holiday weekend next year and have promised to bring along even more continental traders to double the number of food stalls, bringing back favourites such as Tartiflette, crêpes, paella and mustards which will compliment the Festival Markets 108 stalls and shops perfectly.

THEATRE COMPANY SEEKS LANCASTER STORIES
7/5/07: Doldrum Theatre need the help of local people as they attempt to create a new alternative guided tour of Lancaster, and whether you?ve lived in the city for six months or 60 years, Doldrum want to hear from you!
The new theatre company, formed by Lancaster University Theatre Studies graduates, Dplans to make its first production is a guided tour with a difference. As well as covering the history of the city and its buildings, they want to map the history and the experiences of people living here to get behind the traditional tourist image.
The company are looking for stories, memories and experiences of Lancaster from anyone connected with the city.
From Thursday 24th to Monday 28th of May they will be holding a series of workshops to help them gather the material they need. A whole host of methods and activities are planned, ranging from discussions of memories and stories to making journeys around the city to discover all those secret places known to only a few.
If you are interested in finding out more please contact Andrew on 07970 654507 or email doldrumtheatre@hotmail.co.uk.

DEVELOPMENT HELL, COUNCIL MANOUVERING
7/5/07 by John Freeman: Reporters from Bury Free Press have now published several reports on the work going on in Bury St. Edmunds where Centros Miller and its builders are redeveloping the old cattle Market.
Some locals there were so upset by the plans they even put a curse on Centros, an act which must surely still be banned under never-repealed witchcraft laws.
The reports indicate that work on the development has already met with criticism from locals after the builders put up two-storey huts next to homes - which, because they are temporary structures, do not require planning permission. Following local elections in Lancaster a peculiar coalition of councillors of every political hue looks set to take control of the City Council, in a desperate bid to remove the Greens, who have seats at the expense of Labour and Liberals, from getting any more power over local decision making.
Council leader and Labour councillor Ian Barker lost his Bulk Ward seat to the Greens in the election and told local press he was in no doubt that those elected are against development and progress in the City. (The Greens have put forward their own plans for development on the controversial canal corridor area).
While his work keeping local council tax low and balancing the Council's books has been much admired and applauded, Barker's backing of the much-hated Northern Bypass scheme proposed by the County Council probably didn't do him any favours, with Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe quite sure it played a part in his downfall.
"We have long known from our campaigning that the Northern Route is detested by most local voters, and Lancaster's traffic congestion is not helped by either scheme," says chair of the group David Gate, referring to both the Northern proposal and the long-since-dropped Western Bypass plan, which local lorry hauliers are trying to get back on the agenda. "TSLM is not a political organisation, but our supporters are voters, and they are not going to stand for the destruction of the district by a massive road that only increases traffic. The Northern Route has backfired on the Council leader, and has been shown to be a massive vote loser.
"The councillors who listened to the people and opposed this unpopular road - the Independents and the Greens - have seen their vote increase. Those who ignored the people have lost seats. Surely it's time for Lancaster City Councillors to follow local MP Geraldine Smith and ditch this unpopular and underperforming scheme."
Cal Giles, one of the co-ordinators of the Lancaster pressure group It's Our City, which opposes the Centros Miller vision for the town, says elected councillors, as well as newly elected councillors, now need to be reminded that should this development go ahead, what is happening now in Bury St. Edmunds is what our city will have to put up with during a build.
"Four years may seem a long time from now," she says, "but by the next election this is what we will be living with. Voters get very angry when their lives are so disrupted and as we have proved, vote with their feet."
Of course, while councillors may appear to listen, they have to be watch like a hawk in case they pull some dirty tricks. Last night, this VL contributor was reminded that after 34,000 local people signed a petition back in the 1980s opposing plans for a two tier market to replace the Victorian one that burnt down (and could not simply be rebuilt because the Conservative council at the time did not have it sufficiently ensured, according to one local Labour activist), the petition mysteriously vanished.
The two tier market went ahead and remains half empty of stalls to this day...

LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS: COUNCIL WELL-HUNG
4/5/07: Changes are underway at Lancaster City Council as Labour lose 6 seats and the Greens gain five - notably taking all three Bulk Ward seats with a comfortable majority; former Council leader Ian Barker losing his seat in what was once a Labour stronghold. An unprededented turnout in Bulk was attributed to the furore over the Labour-supported and Green-opposed Centros Miller development proposals. Despite Labour's claims that the majority supported the development, the polls told a different story.
The Liberal Democrats also took some losses, dropping from eight seats to five, losing University Ward to the Greens.
The BNP share of the Skerton West vote went from bad to worse, falling from 16% in last year's by-election to 8% this time with Labour holding the ward with a strong majority.
Gains to the Conservatives and the Morecambe Bay Independents leave a council hung between four parties - Labour (14 seats) and the Conservatives, Greens and MBIs (all with 12 seats).
More results here

Full results breakdown on Lancaster City Council Website

CENTROS PAID £10,000 FOR SURVEY (OF HORNBY)
1/5/07: A poll commissioned from ICM Research by Halogen PR on behalf of Centros Miller (CM), which, they claim, suggests that a majority of Lancastrians support the CM proposals for the Canal Corridor Development (if only anyone knew what they were!-) cost the company around £10,000, according to ICM Project Director Christopher Menzies.

Several people have complained about the telephone poll, conducted in April for press release preparatory to Centros' Planning Application, which is due in this month. Participants claim that they were given the impression that the survey was being carried out on behalf of the City Council - and might have refused the call otherwise.

The callers' script included the following introduction; " “Good ……. my name is …….. and I'm calling from ICM Research, the social research organisation. We are currently conducting a survey about issues in the Lancaster City Council area and wanted to ask you a few questions." Neither Halogen nor ICM have clarified why the callers inserted the words 'City Council' and Virtual-Lancaster has been refused sight of the rest of the script.
A CM press release last Friday claimed that "54% of Lancaster residents say they support Centros Miller’s proposals to redevelop the Canal Corridor site in Lancaster city centre – with only 12% saying they oppose the scheme."
They also claim that a massive 43% of clothes and footwear shopping is done in other shopping centres such as Preston, Kendal and Manchester.

Lancaster Residents?
However Centros claims are not quite accurate. According to ICM the survey was conducted on 1000 people who live within the Lancaster City Council administrative area - and included an even spread of people from throughout the area, eg, Morecambe, Heysham, Carnforth, Silverdale, Kellet, Hornby, Ellel etc. as well as Lancaster.
CM also confirmed that the 'clothing and footwear' figures related to all non-food shopping - they include electrical goods, carpets, furniture etc.

This may have some bearing on why the results differ so dramatically from the in-depth retail study commissioned in 2005 by Lancaster City Council from the firm White Young Green Planning (what a name!).

WYG surveyed the area by various means, including a telephone survey to 1,700 households, which they broke down into 16 sub regions, producing sets of results for each area. They found that only 9.5% of Lancaster & Morecambe residents visited Preston for clothes and footwear shopping and a similar figure for electrical goods, in contrast to a massive 64% innaccurately claimed by CM in their press release (but not by their research company ICM). Other figures follow a similar pattern of discrepancy.

Similarly to a previous detailed study carried out in 1997 WYG found that 'leakage' of shoppers to other centres came mainly from peripheral areas, such as Galgate, Carnforth and so on, where travel distances are comparable due to easy motorway access - in contrast to the gridlock that affects Lancaster - and which the CM proposals are set to multiply.

They also identified changes in shopping patterns which would have a massive impact on future retail potential in the city centre:
"2.28. Key retailers, such as Marks & Spencer and the Arcadia Group, are reducing the distribution of their operations and others, such as C&A, have left the domestic marketplace altogether. This is a result not only of price deflation, but also of changing shopping patterns. Many consumers are now prepared to shop in an increasing number of outlets for specialist or niche goods, rather than rely on household names, as was the case previously. The decision by Asda and Tesco to stock clothing has also had a major impact on this core area of high street trade. As demand from these major anchor retailers decreases for representation in smaller town centres, more lower-order retailers and food/drink uses will occupy prime frontages.

"2.30 One area where significant growth is anticipated is the discount retail sector, which at the moment accounts for only 1% of sales in the UK. Growth in sales has been strong in recent years and this is set to continue, possibly with the aid of foreign (and particularly US) investment."

In fact, it may be that the future lies, not with Debenhams, who have shown falling trading figures in the last year but with TKMax - Preston's leading discount fashion retailer.

At the recent debate on the Centros Miller proposals Billy Pye, speaking for It's Our City pointed out that Debenhams' profits now come mainly not from its established stores but from its new stores - due to the fact that they obtain crucial rent and rates reductions as a precondition of their new tenancy - costs to be born by the local ratepayers. The store depends for its survival on the cutthroat deals it can make in new locations - and is banking on CM to make sure that happens in Lancaster. (S)
You can read Centros Miller's press release here.
You can read the White Young Green retail study here.

ELECTION SPECIAL
Creative accounting..
The Labour Party has circulated Bulk Ward with a leaflet quoting the Centros Miller/ICM poll as stating that of those 'Lancaster residents' (tell that to the ones living in Arnside) aware of the proposals, 61% are in favour, 12% opposed, 14% don't know and 19% have no opinion.
We make that, er... 106%.
Know Your Ward.
Today's offering from the Conservatives for Fairfield is all about parking, including the claim that the situation is so desperate that residents are going to concrete over their front gardens to provide private parking, which the tories are against as that would be bad for the environment....
Oh, would that houses in Fairfield had frontage big enough for a car - even a mini!!!!

Previous stories: 16 - 30 April 2007
Next stories: 16 - 31 May 2007