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Tithebarn proposals are ‘all or nothing’
TOP TALKS: Coun Ken Hudson and Coun John Collins at the opening of the inquiry
A scaled-down Tithebarn scheme has never been an option, a Lend Lease boss has claimed.
Blackpool and Blackburn’s main gripe with the £700m revamp is that they would be left “undermined” by the “sheer scale” of Preston’s improved shopping area.
But, under cross-examination on the second day of the public inquiry into the project, Richard Coppell from the developers said it was “all or nothing”. He said: “We’re only going to progress a scheme which we believe works from a commercial perspective and achieves the council’s aspirations. If a smaller scheme was deliverable and met the council’s aspirations, that is something we would have considered but it didn’t.”
And when Christopher Katkowski QC from the Opposition Consortium Authorities (OCA) for Blackpool and Blackburn pressed for more details about the deal struck between the developers and Preston Council, in an effort to prove the developers were “locked-in” to a set size, the exchange became heated.
David Elvin QC, for the Preston Tithebarn Partnership, told Mr Katkowski during the hearing at the University of Central Lancashire: “You are asking the witness to breach confidentiality.”
Earlier, Mr Coppell had described Preston’s shops as “under-performing”. He said: “It’s clearly an under-performing centre that has a poor quality offer...which really presents an opportunity, supported by its existing catchment, to support a significant improvement to that offer through major development. The lack of a major and quality department store in Preston is really its undoing. We think we can attract higher order and much better fashion names to the city.”
However, he said the city would never compete with its north-west neighbours and said: “Preston is never going to be a Manchester or a Liverpool. It’s simply not going to get to that level, however it can, through this scheme, claw back some of the leakage that’s going to those centres.”
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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Comments
There are 17 comments to this article
Page 1 of 2
Frenchwoody
Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 10:14 PMIt's not hippy to plan sustainably: it's official Government policy. The truth is that Tithebarn is a dinosaur, a throwback to 1960s comprehensive developments like the wrecked town centres of Burnley or Salford. Tithebarn is just so last century.
Diesel10
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 08:59 PM"We need a sustainable, community-based, environmentally-friendly regeneration of our city" - tie-dye, hippy blouse anyone? Lets go the whole hog and only have shops that deal with a 'barter' system.
Frenchwoody
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 05:49 PMTithebarn is doomed. It's the wrong scheme in the wrong place at the wrong time. A long-delayed 1990s shopping scheme was based on cheap credit and cheap energy. By 2016 it'll be almost a generation too late in a world of peaked oil supply, tight credit and changed policies about climate change.* A similar process happened in the declining years of the Lancashire cotton industry when giant mills, such as Tulketh and Bamber Bridge, were built when the market was obviously in terminal decline. * We need a sustainable, community-based, environmentally-friendly regeneration of our city centre and not a dated dinosaur scheme sucking our wealth into the pockets of Australian property developers*
matthill
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 05:46 PMYes, as expected, the typical uncouth and arrogant jonh response. And not, of course, just on the LEP website, but, as many will know, elsewhere on online forums. Time to grow up, and, take a look in the mirror. This correspondence is now closed.
jonh
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 04:54 PMThanks matthill for proving what a retard you are. I do hope Tithebarn fails and Preston remains the nothingsville it is now. Those of us with standards can enjoy the decent and proper cities in the North.
River
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 04:52 PMYou can read my latest blog about this here: http:riversstream.blogspot.com201005tithebarn-inquiry-more-delay-more.html
beast155
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 04:32 PMYAWN! leaders of our stupid council you have had youir time to sort this. what is the point of you lot?
laffalot
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 01:15 PMNow now ladies, handbags at 20 yards!!!!
matthill
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:48 PMIs there anyway to get jonh blocked? We don't need the same drivel posted more than once thanks to a clueless numpty who cannot use a computer.
jonh
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:38 PMIs there anyway to get Matthill blocked? We don't need the same drivel posted more than once thanks to a clueless numpty who cannot use a computer.
River
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 10:32 AMThat should read: "It's like finding a miracle cure, then having to create an illness for it to treat". #apologies
River
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 10:31 AMOur problem is that the fundamental reason why Preston City Centre has stagnated for the past decade has been because of the planner's blight caused by the Tithebarn project and the uncertainty around it. It has indeed been 'all or nothing', and so far we've seen nothing. If a more reasonable, sensitive set of proposals, that had been designed with the involvement of people living and working in Preston had been put forward all those years ago, we'd already be seeing the benefits. Instead we put all our eggs in one overambitious basket and Tithebarn has since held Preston back for year after year after year, while all we get from the developers is delay after delay after delay. And what is the solution we're offered by our politicians to the decline in Preston that their Tithebarn scheme has caused? The Tithebarn scheme. It's liket finding a miracle cure, then having to create an illness for it treat.
matthill
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 10:21 AMIn 1998, when the first proposals for Tithebarn apparently emerged, its retail & business dominated plans where, quite conceivably, fully justified and, even, highly desirable. Indeed, in 1998, the time may well have been right. But, some 12 years on, times have changed, and changed dramatically, particularly in the past twothree years. We are only just out of recession, and office & retail capacity stands unfinished, empty and rotting, all over our area (and the country as a whole). That time (1998) is now long gone and Tithebarn is now unsustainable, with, for example insufficient retail spending capacity to support it. Simply, whilst the Tithebarn vision has always been in the wrong place, it is now also in the wrong time space. The overriding priority for Preston, simply above all else, is first to put in place a fully operational integrated transport strategy, without which the City Centre and its immediate & middle distance environs will soon simply choke to death. And the vital first step towards such a transport facility remains a comprehensive fully funded feasibility study of all the transport options available, (be they bus, guided bus, Parry People Movers, Trampower, train and tramway (rapid transport), etc.). Pivotal to a fully operational integrated transport strategy for Preston should be the central bustram interchange based on a fully and appropriately refurbished & user friendly present Bus Station, whilst another similar facility may, ultimately, prove viable in the immediate vicinity of the Railway Station.
matthill
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 10:21 AMIn 1998, when the first proposals for Tithebarn apparently emerged, its retail & business dominated plans where, quite conceivably, fully justified and, even, highly desirable. Indeed, in 1998, the time may well have been right. But, some 12 years on, times have changed, and changed dramatically, particularly in the past twothree years. We are only just out of recession, and office & retail capacity stands unfinished, empty and rotting, all over our area (and the country as a whole). That time (1998) is now long gone and Tithebarn is now unsustainable, with, for example insufficient retail spending capacity to support it. Simply, whilst the Tithebarn vision has always been in the wrong place, it is now also in the wrong time space. The overriding priority for Preston, simply above all else, is first to put in place a fully operational integrated transport strategy, without which the City Centre and its immediate & middle distance environs will soon simply choke to death. And the vital first step towards such a transport facility remains a comprehensive fully funded feasibility study of all the transport options available, (be they bus, guided bus, Parry People Movers, Trampower, train and tramway (rapid transport), etc.). Pivotal to a fully operational integrated transport strategy for Preston should be the central bustram interchange based on a fully and appropriately refurbished & user friendly present Bus Station, whilst another similar facility may, ultimately, prove viable in the immediate vicinity of the Railway Station.
Diesel10
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 10:05 AMTotally agree with Ray and Jonh but give it a few hours and they'll be the usual call of 'no fancy big developments for Preston thank you very much'. Seems to me many folk would be happy with a lick of paint on the outside market and perhaps some fixed seating in Greggs.
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