Shopping
Too many towns and cities have lost their local distinctiveness and become clones of some nowhere-average-town that has the very same shops as the next place and tries to compete to steal customers from neighbouring shopping centres. Lancaster has managed, as much by luck as by design, to avoid this fate – So far!
We don’t want Lancaster to become some slimmed-down version of Preston, we don’t want to compete to attract shoppers away from Morecambe or Carnforth and contribute to the decline of shops in those towns. We want to build on and support the independent retailers that we already have - many of whom will be threatened by the huge increase in shopping space being proposed by Centros Miller.
Our plan proposes a limited extention of the city centre around a new public square where small & meduim sized retailers and independent shops would complement rather than compete with shops in the city centre. With a mix of clothes, mixed goods & food stores along side specialist shops that would be attracted by a ‘cultural quarter’ that had cafes, bars and theatre venues as part of its make up.
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