Previous stories: 16 - 31 March 2008
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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."
When the plans, hailed as 'visionary' at the time, were originally mooted developers cited shopper 'leakage' to other clone development shopping centres such as Glasgow, Ayr, Carlisle and even Belfast (another Centros development, coincidentally) as requiring a similar department store development to combat it, although local traders themselves blamed recent out-of-town supermarket developments.
However the projected downswing in non-essential retail globally means that the development is unlikely to be able to recoup its costs.
Centros' scheme in Portsmouth has also run into financial difficulties but a 'secret' development deal done with Portsmouth council has meant that the local taxpayers and not Centros will be subsidising any losses to protect the Centros balance sheet.

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. A Special Planning Committee meeting will be held over a period of 2 days at Lancaster Town Hall to allow for sufficient space to accommodate the public.
Provisional dates have been set of 15th/16th and 23rd/24th September.
In the meantime Centros are squaring up to resume the invasion on the ground with an invitation to a 'consultation workshop meeting' (yes, all three at once) from Steve Bryson of Halogen, Centros' cuddly PR face, who writes:
"As part of the lead-up to the preparation of a new planning application for the Canal Corridor North site in Lancaster city centre, we plan to hold another meeting with representatives of all the key local interest groups on the evening of Wednesday 2nd April at 6.30pm.
"As before, we would like up to three representatives of each group to attend, so if any of you cannot make this date, perhaps you would be able to arrange for a substitute to attend.
"The groups invited are:
It’s Our City
Lancashire Police
Lancaster Chamber of Commerce
Lancaster Civic Society
Lancaster Canal Trust
Lancaster & Morecambe Vision
"The meeting will provide an opportunity for members of the Centros development team to present and explain the revised scheme and for those attending to ask questions and make comments and suggestions on the plans."
This workshop is scheduled for Thursday 17 April, but it is difficult to establish what it is to work out, as by this stage in the proceeding Centros has already prepared the plan. Mr Bryson runs the risk of being compared to the lady who invites her aquaintances to a craft-making afternoon and then proceeds instead to try to sell them tupperware.
The most obvious hurdles Centros must overcome in the resubmission involve planning for both a positive impact on local traffic problems (or at least not a negative one - an almost impossible task) and the developing downturn in the non-essential retail market.
Reduction in the retail element is expected to be a part of the revised plan, as is an increase in housing, although there is no hint as yet whether this will include any of the social, access-facilitated housing that the community is desperately short of. S

LINK ROAD UPDATE/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.
Lancaster City Councillor Roger Mace and his Conservative group celebrated the result, while Labour MP Geraldine Smith condemned the foolhardiness of choosing the wrong route - a reference to her support for the long-defunct Western Route proposal. The Green Party and anti-bypass campaigners TSLM condemned the decision that "will destroy 173 acres of the North Lancashire Green Belt and bring noise, vibration, light and air pollution to at over 1,000 households within 200m of the massive HGV dual carriageway" but took compfort in the knowledge that funding had yet to be approved for the scheme.
A question raised in Parliament by local MP Geraldine Smith has put Lancashire County Council (LCC) under the financial spotlight. Following the Secretary of State's decision, it issued a press release telling the public that Hazel Blears had given the controversial Heysham M6 Link road the go ahead and stating that the projected costs stood at £105 million.
Geraldine Smith MP questioned the Secretary of State for Transport on the funding, and Minister Rosie Winterton replied on 6 March that LCC had informed the Government that the latest 'outturn total cost' is estimated to be £140 million.
"It seems that the costs have leapt up by £35 million in one month," said David Gate, chair of transport pressure group TSLM, who favour alternatives to road building. "The whole costs issue is likely to be a big headache for LCC. Its next step in the process is to convince the North West Regional Assembly to support the scheme at the increased cost. The NWRA transport budget is already believed to be overspent by some £131 million.
"Even if the NWRA wanted to continue with this destructive and polluting, Green Belt destroying road, the whole issue would then go back to the Department for Transport, who are considering the Link road’s bid for funding, submitted way back in July 2005. Here the County Council has to add a 35% 'optimism bias' to the £140 million, that's a whopping total of £189 million."
"LCC certainly have their work cut out to get their hands on the taxpayers’ money. With no answer to local congestion, no improvements to public transport and no extra bridge into Lancaster included in the package, the Link road looks like very poor value for money for everyone."
The Lancaster Guardian reports that another challenge for the Link Road proposal is a lawsuit brought by Linda Davies, of Russell Drive, Torrisholme, to the High Court.
Mrs Davies, a retired social worker and a former teacher at Lancaster and Morecambe College, has secured legal aid enabling her lawyers, Essex-based EarthRights, to contest points of appeal in the planning application, which was approved by the secretary of state last month.
EarthRights have written to Lancashire County Council outlining their three-pronged appeal after campaigners from Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe (TSLM) declined to mount a legal bid.
EarthRights argue that the road's environmental assessment was "inadequate" and say the park-and-ride, which would be built close to junction 34 of the M6, was not subject to the same probe.
"he legal team also claim the county council failed to assess properly alternative measures, such as public transport, and did not look into the risk of flooding. S

Previous stories: 16 - 31 March 2008
Next stories: 1 - 15 May 2008