1 May 2023 Newsbrief 103 Lancaster City Council Elections and South Lancaster Road Infrastructure

1. Final reminder for the Lancaster City Council elections which take place this Thursday 4th May 2023.

Do be sure to have photo ID (photo driving licence or passport) to vote in this election as the law has changed. CLOUD Newsbrief 101 set out statements from many of the election candidates in the south Lancaster and Ellel wards in response to our question :

What are your views of the financial and environmental risks associated with the development plans for South Lancaster and the 9185 houses linked to the £140m Housing Infrastructure Fund agreement signed by Lancaster City Council in autumn 2021?

If you want to check back to these statements, click here for a link to these statements on our website. (In Newsbrief 101 we explained that statements hadn’t been received from all candidates - no further statements have been received in the interim).

1. Here is a reminder of the main issues on which CLOUD has campaigned (over the years!). CLOUD members may wish to set this against the views of candidates in the City Council elections:

   • No evidence to support the 9185 new houses proposed for South Lancaster (equivalent to a new town of some 30,000 inhabitants). We have heard suggestions that this figure “doesn’t really matter” - but it must do as it formed the basis for the bid for a central government contribution towards the M6 road links.

   • No evidence on where the jobs for these 30,000 new residents will come from - and the suspicion that they will be commuting to work in Preston, Manchester etc.

   • The high cost estimates for the M6 road links and the lack of confidence in these figures - especially as the alignment of the link roads keeps changing and now features 2 railway line crossings instead of the single one in the original scheme.

   • The conflict between Lancaster City Council’s declaration of a climate emergency and the high carbon footprint of the proposed south Lancaster road infrastructure - both its construction phase and from the additional traffic flows if/when built.

   • The massive disruption to the lives of those living close to the route of the new road cannot be under estimated. Recent road disruption pales into insignificance when you look at what major road construction projects like the Preston Western Distributor have caused. Our video Living with Major Road Disruption acts as a reminder

2. Elections are also taking place on 4th May for the local Parish Councils. These links are to the websites where you can see their most recent views on the South Lancaster Area Action Plan and related matters in the report on the consultation https://www.lancaster.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/south-lancaster-area-action-plan-aap (for the report click on Topic Paper Consultation)

3. Lancashire County Council Drop-in Sessions 8th/9th March. It is now nearly 8 weeks since these drop-in sessions. So far as we are aware, there has not been any public response to the many issues raised at the sessions or in the on-line survey. We will be pursuing County on this - but if any CLOUD members have received feedback from County, please let us know. For reference to Newsbrief 100 relating to responses to drop ins and the Ellel Parish Council meeting on 13 March 2023 follow this link