Battling council bosses accused by own leaders
Opposition leaders at councils planning to fight Preston's £700m Tithebarn rebirth today turned on their own authorities, branding their objections a "gamble".
Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool councils have hired one of the country's top planning QCs in a bid to crush the Preston scheme at the inquiry later this year.
Reports have suggested that both could spend hundreds of thousands of pounds funding a consortium battle against the project.
Wyre, Pendle, Fylde and Burnley councils have also objected to Tithebarn, but Blackburn and Blackpool look set to bear the majority of the cost.
Both council leaders have said there are fears that Tithebarn could seriously damage their own town centre trade.
But today Coun Kate Hollern, Blackburn's Labour group leader, said: "I can't see where they're coming from.
"Blackburn really needs to get its act together. I would much rather the money they are planning to use to fight this campaign of theirs be spent on finishing Blackburn.
"Rather than working against Preston, I think we should be working together to welcome people to Lancashire and give them choice and options.
"I have heard varying figures (on the cost) – 20,000, 70,000, 200,000 – and when I couldn't get a clear answer, I thought, we don't even know how much it is going to cost, so how do we know if it is money well spent?"
Blackpool's Labour group leader, Coun Ivan Thomas, said there is a genuine "unknown" concern about how Tithebarn could affect Blackpool, but said plans to spend 250,000 on the inquiry were a "gamble".
"I certainly have concerns about this," he said. "I know a lot of people in Blackpool do because we are facing a very difficult budgetary position at the moment. Even for a unitary authority like Blackpool, it is a lot of money.
"If they argued it was going to stop this development that is one thing, but I'm not even convinced it will achieve that. I'm far from convinced that stopping someone else's development necessarily brings new development here."
Preston Council leader Coun Ken Hudson said: "I can't see that it will do them any good wasting council taxpayers' money on fighting Preston."
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
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