Scotforth West runs south from the city centre, from the Pointer Roundabout to the edge of the city. It includes Greaves, Scotforth, Ashton Road, Stodday, Haverbreaks, Piccadilly and the bit of Bowerham to the west of Bowerham Road and north of Palatine Ave.
Cllr Emily Heath has requested that a hand-rail be fitted on the steps from Bellevue Terrace down to Greaves Road, following several accidents where people have fallen and hurt themselves. She has also asked the County Council to look at moving the street light so that the steps are fully illuminated.
Saturday 1st of March saw Lancaster’s Carnival of Culture come off without a hitch. During the day, between 250-350 people joined in a fantastically colourful, creative and vibrant street procession that snaked around the town through the afternoon, stopping in spots that are due to be blighted by car-parks, big box retail shopping and so forth, as well as the town square with it’s Trumpton-style Victoria statue, the City hall and the planners’ offices.
For full report by ‘anarchoteapot’ see Indymedia. For more pics,video etc see the Carnival website.
Lancashire Care NHS Trust have selected the greenfield Royal Albert Fields site, in Ashton Road, as their number one choice for a multi-million pound mental health unit in North Lancashire.
The trust claim they have given careful consideration to “Site surveys, site conditions, planning advice.” and now intend to move on to applying for planning permission. (more…)
At the January meeting of Cabinet, Green Councillors proposed that Council house rent increases should be less than 5% but were defeated by Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem Councillors voted in favour of the above-inflation increase. At full Council on 27th February, Green Councillors again attempted to get future years’ Council rent rises in line with inflation but were defeated. Cllr Jon Barry said: “It is those on low wages who suffer from Council house rent increases. A year on year increase of 5% is far higher than inflation and cannot be justified”.
The new play area in Greaves Park has been so popular that the paths to and through it became very muddy over the winter. The City Council has now installed some properly-surfaced paths to address this problem.
Royal Albert Residents Association (RARA) say they will fight plans for a mental health unit which could be built close to their homes. On Tuesday night a meeting was held at Scotforth Parish rooms to discuss the plans and ways of stopping any proposals to build on fields behind their homes. (more…)
Proposals announced on January 22nd to close sub-post offices across the district have been met with anger and disbelief from residents and local councillors. The closure threat is part of a nationwide plan to axe up to 2500 Post Offices from the network. Scotforth County Councillor Chris Coates, said “Axing local post offices affects some customers more than others; those on lower incomes, people with disabilities and carers, female customers and those over 65. What used to be a public service is now becoming a purely cash driven organisation.”
(more…)
Lancaster City Council’s cabinet is due to make a decision on the ‘tender brief’ for the sale Lawsons Bridge fields (between the A6, Ray’s Drive and the railway) on Tuesday 22 January 2008.
Scotforth Cllr Emily Heath said “ People should let the council know what they feel about them selling off these fields to the highest bidder. The last thing we need in south Lancaster is a giant new supermarket.” (more…)
A fantastic new children’s play area has now been completed at Greaves Park, between the Greaves Park hotel and the A6. Funding for the play area, which replaces the worn-out swings and seesaw at Parkfield, was raised by Friends of Greaves Park Community group FoGP was set up by local residents including Abi Mills and Green councillor for Scotforth West, Emily Heath. Abi Mills said: “I am delighted the play area is now in place. The new facility has been warmly welcomed by local families who I am sure will make good use of it.”
A scheme of road safety measures for the stretch of the A588 from Thurnham Bridge through Conder Green to Arna Wood Road will be put forward for consideration for funding in next years round of the County Council’s Local Safety Scheme programme. This follows the publication of an Accident Study Report carried out following two fatal crashes on the road in the past five years and concerns raised by local residents about the dangers all along the road. The detailed report recommends a number of measures including; new signage, realigning road markings, rumble strips and interactive flashing SLOW DOWN signs at an estimated cost of £50,000.
The full study can be viewed here: a588-final-cllr-study.pdf
