Previous stories: 16 - 30 November 2007
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PUBLIC MEETING ON SUPERMARKET PLANS
12/12/07:Green Councillors in Scotforth West ward, Emily Heath and Jane Fletcher, have organised a public meeting to enable residents to find out what’s happening about Lancaster City Council’s plans to sell fields at Lawson’s Bridge for a possible supermarket development. The meeting will be held on Thursday 13 December at 7.45pm in Scotforth Parish Hall, on the corner of Scotforth Road and Palatine Avenue. Speakers will include local resident Susan Jackson (who has been collecting evidence in support of a ‘town green’ designation for the site), and ‘Its Our City’ campaigner Tim Hamilton-Cox.
Cllr Heath said: “We are concerned that the City Council has not considered the environmental, social and economic impacts of a new out-of-town supermarket, and we want these issues to be thought-through before the land is sold, not after. We hope that a public meeting will help to stimulate debate and action.”
Cllr Fletcher said: “The Council’s cabinet has declined to engage with residents in Scotforth on this issue, so we have decided to do it ourselves. The meeting is an opportunity for people to find out what has happened so far and what happens next, think about how to respond, and express their views. Everyone is welcome to come along and have their say, whether they are for, against or undecided on the supermarket proposal.”

SANTA'S CONCEPT ART GROTTOS
12/12/07: Storey Gallery is challenging our department store ideas of the Santa's Grotto. For one day only, on Friday 21 December in Lancaster’s Market Square, shoppers and children alike will be given the opportunity to experience a different sort of Christmas Grotto. There will be a choice of two in the square, both offering atypical and distinctive experiences which question our modern perceptions of Christmas. A visit to either Grotto will still maintain the magic of the festive period, just in a different way. These Grottoes are for children of all ages from 1 to 100, in fact they may be particularly appealing to adults.

Your children will receive gifts and an experience, although different to a standard Grotto, which excites and engages them. Adults will get the opportunity to question the Christmas we are spoon fed, think about its roots in pagan traditions and consider how it might evolve in the ever advancing technological world.

Over the past month Storey Gallery has been working with universities in the North West helping students to broaden their ideas and develop proposals for alternative Christmas Grottoes. A selection group, which included local parents, chose two very different proposals, which Storey Gallery then commissioned. The Grottoes, which will be free and open to all on the 21st December, have been created by two groups of students from the Interactive Arts course at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Previous stories: 16 - 30 November 2007
Next Stories: 1 - 15 January 2008