Council Vote to Ignore Public
Lancaster City Council’s October cabinet meeting has voted to ignore public opinion and proceed with the sale of green fields at Lawson’s Bridge to the south of the City on the A6 for a possible supermarket. (Rumoured to be Tesco’s)The meeting was attended by angry local residents, and cabinet members had received an avalanche of emails protesting about the proposal. A 24hr protest camp occupation of the fields in question had taken place prior to the meeting. Despite the protests a proposal put forward by Green Councillor Maia Whitelegg to defer the decision to allow public consultation to occur was voted down by members of all other parties.
Protestors say the plans for the land only came to light after the Green Party blew the whistle on an underhand plan to push through a decision in private.Cllr Emily Heath says: “This item had a vague title on the agenda and was not included in the council’s forward plan for key decisions. The report itself was restricted so the press and public could not find out what was proposed - it was only published at the last minute.This is probably the biggest and most controversial decsion to affect south Lancaster for many years and yet it is being rushed through without any public debate.”
Local residents have started collecting evidence to apply for the fields to be granted Town Green status which would preserve the land as open green space.
For more on the protest camp see the story on Virtual Lancaster.