Watch business leaders discuss Preston's future
Preston has suffered from a lack of leadership to drive forward its regeneration, a panel of key city leaders has said.
The group spoke – at the latest LEP/Yorkshire Bank Leader's Lunch event – of the need for the city's public sector, businesses and citizens to unite to get things moving.
Steven Broomhead, chief executive of the influential North West Development Agency (NWDA), spoke of his disappointment at "a lack of civic entrepreneurship" among the top brass.
He said that the appointment of Preston Vision, the new company set up to drive forward the city's plans, would help bring about changes in a similar way to that in which neighbouring Liverpool has been regenerated.
Mr Broomhead said: "There is a lot of work to do in Preston. One of the successes in Liverpool was it did not have the capacity with its partners to carry out economic development itself.
"It is for that same reason we created Preston Vision here.
"Hopefully, we are building up high-quality office space and towards the Guild celebrations in 2012."
Steve Jackson, the founder of social enterprise Recycling Lives, said at Tuesday's forum that he believed the lack of development in Preston could turn out to be its "saving grace".
He said:"We could now be looked at as a great development opportunity post-recession, to complement the rest of the North West."
Mick Lovatt, Preston Council's director of environment, said "a range of developers" saw the potential of developing the whole of the city.
Go online at www.lep.co.uk/business to watch the debate in full.
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 14 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
