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See Latest Corresponence | Archive Renaissance: What an insult to taxpayers | Link
(News and Star) When the ruling Conservative/Liberal Democrat alliance on Carlisle city council abrogated their elected responsibilities to this unelected body (Renaissance) to oversee the future of our city, they insulted the people who had elected them as councillors to act on our behalf. Having done that, they then sat and watched as £6.6 million of taxpayers money was thrown about like confetti on all sorts of wild grandiose schemes – none of which have so far come to fruition. As this dire scenario became obvious to all, including the electorate who had initially been kept in the dark, the Renaissance body started to latch onto sensible schemes put forward, implemented by other people, even claiming them as their ideas! Our MP Eric Martlew says Renaissance should be wound up – the citizens of Carlisle have been wound up, if not stitched up, by this lot for some time. PATRICK TRACEY Carlisle needs to find clarity and purpose | Link
(News and Star) Carlisle’s drawing board is in danger of buckling under the weight of the plans currently residing on it. Numerous elements of the city’s future have either recently been returned to this drawing board or have never even left it. The University of Cumbria’s campus at Caldew Riverside; a theatre for Carlisle; the regeneration of Botchergate and St Nicholas; the airport’s expansion; the City of Culture bid; the ‘super surgery’; the proposed supermarkets at Caldewgate and Morton; the Morton Masterplan. That Carlisle Renaissance, the body charged with implementing progress, is itself in danger of grinding to a halt speaks volumes about Carlisle’s resistance to change. There is no change which will please everyone. But fear of upsetting detractors should not be a starting point for policy. Conservatism based on appreciation of Carlisle’s assets and a fear of losing them is understandable. But it’s a short step to an urge to preserve which is based on the principle of ‘we’ve always done it this way’, creating a mindset which views change with anxiety rather than excitement. The city’s jewels are safe. No plan is going to bulldoze the cathedral. However, some things do need to change. Inertia sees the Lonsdale slide towards dereliction as Carlisle’s City of Culture bid is dismissed. It sees the city’s southern gateway rot, depressing locals and deterring tourists. Politicians are easy targets but business has a responsibility too. The future of Botchergate and the airport lie largely in private as well as public hands. Carlisle needs bold decision-making, a quality which has not been conspicuous in recent years. But any idea is difficult to bring to fruition in the 21st century when decision by committee is often essential to attract funding. An ideal world would see the views of citizens taken into account by strong leaders from public and private sectors, working together with purpose and clarity. Don’t let our hopes die too | Link
(News and Star) It now looks more than likely that the Carlisle Renaissance scheme is dead. Cumbria County Council leader Jim Buchanan rightly points out that it has lost all credibility after five years of achieving next to nothing. He says it should be scrapped and relaunched under a new name. It seems that the North West Regional Development Agency, which is funding the project, agrees with Mr Buchanan. Some people may cheer and celebrate the demise of Renaissance. They would be wrong. Carlisle is crying out for regeneration: to make the most of what is, at heart, a beautiful and characterful city. Certain areas are in desperate need of a complete overhaul. To attract the money necessary for this, we need a regeneration body of some description – but one that is backed by all political parties and the city and county council. With a general election brewing, there will be all kinds of promises made, but we have to completely remove politics from the project. Reshaping Carlisle will have a major effect not just on those who live in the city, but across the wider county and is something that will affect our lives for the next 20, 30 or 50 years. A new way forward should be found and has to be found. The worst possible scenario for us all is to find ourselves in 20 years time wondering ‘If only...’ It’s a wonder we get anything done | Link
(News and Star) As MP Eric Martlew expresses his disappointment with Carlisle Renaissance (The Cumberland News, February 12), one cannot help feeling that his views are akin to the captain of The Titanic quietly nipping below, donning civilian clothes and taking his place in the lifeboats. Mr Martlew seems to forget that, rather than the evil Conservatives and Lib-Dems being to blame, the iceberg is the result of a system of government – and it’s a system which he has supported and espoused since 1997. I run a small business and I’m involved in three Carlisle charitable bodies. My constant frustration is how much paperwork is created, how many reports are necessary and how it’s very difficult to get anyone to make decisions without cutting down half the rain forest in paper. Mr Martlew’s criticisms of Carlisle Renaissance are probably valid, but similar problems are now endemic in every corner of the British Isles. It seems the whole lengthy and bureaucratic nonsense we have been plunged into stems from the fear of making decisions. Individual decision-makers have been replaced by quangos, committees, pressure groups and regulatory bodies. It now takes an eternity to do anything. Can you imagine this system in operation in the past? The railway would not have been allowed in the city centre and the mills would not have been built. Carlisle Castle would probably have been delayed due to consultations and provision for the local newt population. Hadrian’s Wall would have health and safety issues and would not have been built on the basis that it discriminated against ethnic minorities. The view of the man and woman in the street seems to be ignored in favour of perceived political correctness and the workings of leagues of legal and consultative bodies. How is it that a small group of individuals can delay the development of Carlisle Airport when the vast majority of the population wants the improvements? How many people have to say they want the Lonsdale as a local theatre before anyone with authority gets serious about the project? There’s obviously a General Election on the horizon. Eric Martlew may be disappointed with Carlisle Renaissance, but to be frank, he’s more than a bit late to see the light. The work of quangos is now costing every household £3,640 a year, according to a recent report. More than 1,000 unelected public bodies were handed over £90 billion of taxpayers’ money in 2007-08. In simple terms, that’s a seven-fold rise since Labour came to power in 1997. While local politicians point their fingers at each other like children in a playground argument, the people of Carlisle and the region want decisive and unambiguous decision-makers. They also want people willing to represent their common wishes rather than projects dreamed up by consultants. DAVID PRICE * Why is it that Renaissance chooses losers when looking for projects to regenerate the city? Members chose to pull down Rickergate which failed after a spirited campaign by residents. The Castle Street revamp has limited public support. Now their prime policy of the university locating on the lower viaduct is in ruins. Why don’t they listen to the people of Carlisle? It doesn’t take a genius to look around this city and see where the priorities to be tackled are and which would be assured of public support. A superstore for the west of the city has massive public support, why have they not come out in support of Sainsbury’s for Caldewgate? The area at the south end of Botchergate is crying out for a comprehensive development plan which, with imagination, could provided much-needed social housing close to the city centre. A mix of commercial/industrial development and leisure could also attract investment and thus regeneration. Mr Gray asks: ‘What has Carlisle done in the last 20 years?’ A better question would have been: ‘What has been achieved in the last 10 years?’ He would have to say ‘nothing’ since the Tory/Lib Dems took control of the city council in 1999. Going further back, he would see a different story when Carlisle was really progressive. If Mr Gray is genuinely looking for regeneration for this city, then he has very little time left, so my advice would be: get on with something achievable which guarantees public support. IAN STOCKDALE * Back in March 2008 Carlisle Renaissance produced an economic strategy for the city region called Growing Carlisle. This strategy was predicated on an optimistic growth in population figures and the economy being strong. It predicted a glowing future for Carlisle. It was never clear how this growth was to be achieved. Two years later we are deep in recession. The University of Cumbria’s plans for a headquarter building at Caldew Riverside have been shelved and the future of the regional development agencies looks increasingly uncertain as the election approaches. Growing Carlisle is clearly obsolete. Eric Martlew’s comments expressed confidence in the idea of the city council managing its own development schemes, such as was done with The Lanes. Surely the first step in this approach would be for the council to ditch Growing Carlisle and write its own economic strategy, without any input from Carlisle Renaissance. This strategy would hopefully be realistic, match the straitened times and also reflect the needs and wishes of the people of Carlisle. Mr Martlew acknowledges that this approach would be courageous on the part of the council. It might also be popular and certainly couldn’t produce anything as out of touch with the local population’s wishes as the Carlisle Renaissance schemes. Best of all, for the people of Carlisle, they might have some chance of being listened to and the opportunity of calling those responsible to account, should things should go wrong. The council might also begin to regain the confidence of its electors. ELIZABETH ALLNUTT * What's the connection between the Carlisle Renaissance and the Solway Barrages? Our money down the drain. Big people with big ideas and big wages does not mean success. I offered Renaissance the chance to see red kites over the city as there were in Roman times – worth £1m a year to local communities but that was not what the organisation wanted. The Solway is worth millions in tourism and wildlife but Renaissance wants to destroy it with lack of planning. ‘Man-made’ global warming is no longer the buzz word thanks again to members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the University of East Anglia. Barrage entrepreneur Nigel Catterson wants you to switch off nine out of 10 electrical items in your house to save energy. These people are pulling the wool over your eyes – even with sheep numbers collapsing on our uplands. JOHN MILES * I would like to buck the trend of criticism of Carlisle Renaissance. It seems to me that Renaissance has taken on the major structural issues in the city that have blighted development and progress for decades. That was a brave choice and in any context seeing it through would be tough. It requires time and investment in planning and development and you still can be sure you won’t make everybody happy. At this point I should declare an interest as I work with the University of Cumbria and I have worked in regeneration in west Cumbria for nearly 10 years. I am used to the same sort of criticism. Unfortunately Renaissance has been hit by the recession double-whammy that has stalled investment from the private sector and now limited the depth of the public funds to drive development. But the line of attack that I find most nonsensical is that the members of the Renaissance board don’t understand or care about Carlisle. I guess I should applaud The Cumberland News’ editorial independence given that you used last week’s editorial to join the chorus of complaint while your chief executive’s name is boldly displayed at the bottom of the column and also included elsewhere in the paper in the listing of Renaissance board members. The composition to me looks absolutely right for a regeneration board with a mix of public and private sector interests. I really do not think anyone else could have done any better. ROB RIMMER Renaissance scheme needs rejuvenation | Link
(News and Star) It is clearly time for a long, hard look at Carlisle Renaissance. With cool heads, clarity of thought and having taken several steps back from the heat of angry argument, revision is called for. And that revisiting of purpose and best practice needs to be made soon – before this well-intentioned initiative falls into the trap of spiralling in ever decreasing circles into an abyss of lost opportunity and broken dreams. Carlisle MP Eric Martlew is calling for Renaissance to be wound up. The county council has its doubts about future commitment. Michael Boaden, leader of the opposition Labour group on the city council and the party’s Parliamentary candidate for Carlisle, is disenchanted by lack of progress. The population of Carlisle feels resentful of its bureaucracy and distanced from every aspect of its processes. The Renaissance project – as chaser, procurer and conduit for funding to regenerate Carlisle – has a vital role in the business of securing a future for the city. But whether or not the Renaissance board is ideally composed to meet all critical needs is questionable. Only when the leaders of this important steering body are publicly accountable – elected, in fact – can they hope to represent the best interests of the city with transparency, sustaining a meaningful relationship with its citizens. Carlisle’s regeneration should be led by Carlisle’s elected councillors, in dialogue with and carrying a mandate from Carlisle’s electorate; drawing on available expertise from Carlisle’s business community. Bitterness now over broken promises and depressing disappointments means shots are being fired from all players, at each other, without any resulting positivity for the city or its deeply frustrated people. That can’t go on. Carlisle Renaissance isn’t yet dead in the water. Its raison d’etre is still valid, its aims are still crucial to the growth and prosperity of the city. But – as happens on many long journeys – it might well be time to change drivers. Time is up for Carlisle’s leaders | Link
(News and Star) Carlisle's Renaissance farce continues to rumble on. I find it incredible that, five years after it was first mooted, so much money has been spent and yet there is nothing to show for it. The reliance on the University of Cumbria to develop the Viaduct Estate just goes to show that there is no real way forward under the leadership of the city council or Bryan Gray. All we are being promised now is a tarting up of Castle Street and something similar with the station area. These ideas, along with the proposal for parking meters, is just adding insult to injury to the people of Carlisle, the end result being a reduction in parking spaces which will discourage more people from coming into the city centre. As a resident of the city I, like others, pay more than enough in local taxes and feel this is just another way of squeezing more money out of us. The majority of us want a proper theatre which the council says it cannot afford and yet it has spent a vast amount of money on consultants and other things that would have paid for the development of the Lonsdale and even the old post office building next to it. There is no need for grandiose plans for the Lonsdale. It should be returned to its original capacity with the basement being used as a studio. The GPO could be turned into an arts centre with cafés and a car park at the rear. The city council is letting the people of the city down, as in the past when the old Palace Cinema on Botchergate was knocked down for the building of the eye-sore flats – which still stand empty. They have also recently blocked firms who want to invest in the city, the ongoing Sainsbury’s development being one as well as Tesco and lately the redevelopment of St Nicholas retail park. I, for one, cannot wait to have the chance to change the present city council members for some who will take the city forward. P IRVING Latest stage in Carlisle Renaissance fiasco | Link
(News and Star) So now we are not going to get a theatre/arts centre on the Viaduct estate and yet another of Carlisle Renaissance’s plans bites the dust. What a complete waste of money this project has been. If a fraction of the resources squandered on the failed plans, consultations etc since 2005 had been put into converting the Lonsdale into a theatre/cinema/arts complex then we would have been well on our way to having such a facility. Local drama, dance and theatre groups would have a suitable venue for their productions. They would not have to rely on the very limited availability at The Sands’ sports hall. They would even have a venue for their own pantomime if they wished to put one on. One would no longer have to book weeks in advance to obtain one of the 98 places at Tullie House lecture theatre whenever a popular ‘alternative’ film is programmed. And that is not all. In spite of this debacle the city is still going ahead wasting even more resources by entering Carlisle in a competition with other cities around Britain as the ‘City of Culture’. It beggars belief! The attached image shows the Lonsdale Stage during refurbishment many years ago. DAVID RAMSHAW Are they all talk? Well, not when it comes to speaking to each
other | Link
(News and STar) It’s good to talk. Our powers of communication are what set us apart from other creatures on this planet. Talking things through, co-ordinating and co-operating with others are key to getting things done, improving life, advancing, saving money, avoiding errors, making life more difficult and causing unnecessary expenditure. Sadly, none of this seems to have been happening over the Carlisle Renaissance plans. The Venerable Peter Ballard is the chairman of the board of directors at the University of Cumbria. He has said a major problem faced by the directors was being so closely involved in the redevelopment of the city. He said: “The big problem we’ve had is that we’ve spent two years or so with everyone believing that the University of Cumbria was going to solve their problems overnight. “They thought the University of Cumbria was the vehicle of regeneration of Carlisle. “If we’re guilty of anything it is that we’ve allowed ourselves to be dragged from pillar to post by aspirations elsewhere.” Yet, just a few days before the university announced that it had a £20m deficit and was dropping all immediate plans for expansion, Renaissance chairman Bryan Gray was making positive noises about how its development was moving on. So did the Ven Ballard not tell Mr Gray that the uni had a ‘little difficulty’ on the financial side? Was Mr Gray too forceful in suggesting ways in which the university and its campus could be incorporated in the Renaissance plans? The University of Cumbria was the motor, the driving force of the project and was to provide the new theatre for the city. Because of the university’s troubles, cleaning up and clearing out the Viaduct Estate or Caldew Riverside area of the city is to stop. The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) says it won’t fund the £3.8m work still needed on the former gasworks site until a new occupier agrees to take it on. But who will that be? The university says finances are so tight that there’s no chance of any major development or plans for expansion until 2020. This leaves the Viaduct-Tesco-Morton-Sainsbury’s-Caldewgate supermarket development triangle (ok so it’s more of a pentagon-thingy). Either way, the swish motor we thought was going to power Carlisle has coughed, spluttered and stalled. It’s in need of some TLC and an overhaul. After five years and spending £6.6m the Renaissance team are now left with a scheme to refigure the railway station approach, to remodel The Sands centre to include a new swimming pool and sports hall and helping form a Roman gallery at Tullie House. Setting aside the appalling effect all this has had on students at the university and those who might have been thinking of coming to the university, people who live in and around Carlisle are fed up with endless talk. They want to see some action, some improvement, some communication, co-ordination and co-operation between the politicians, businessmen and decision makers. But maybe this is exactly the right time for everyone to get together, for all parties involved to talk again and decide once and for all what can and can’t be achieved for the city and whether there’s any miles left in Renaissance. Where do dreams go now? | Link
(News and Star) It’s time for lines to be drawn, jobs defined and responsibilities met, if Carlisle’s regeneration hopes are to be rescued from collapse. Too much has, for too long, been attached to the fortunes of the now-struggling University of Cumbria – a point made plainly by the university’s chairman Peter Ballard, who has stated unequivocally that it was never his job to regenerate Carlisle. His could prove to be a point of rude awakening. Carlisle Renaissance has claimed the university as its own triumph, the city council has looked to ride on its coat tails into a new cityscape, redeveloped heart and borrowed arts centre. But now enforced constraints are driving the university’s duty back to basics – to educate – some tough decisions are going to have to be made elsewhere. A campus on the Caldew site has been ruled out in the next decade and there’s no promise beyond that. The Northwest Regional Development Agency won’t spend until an end-user can be found. It’s back to the drawing board for big ideas. No point crying over spilt milk but maybe too many regeneration eggs were piled into one fragile basket. Now, as eggs crack under strain, long hard scrutiny is due. How many dreams are still or were ever valid, which can be afforded and who will be detailed to guarantee delivery? Carlisle people are being ignored | Link
(News and STar) I was present at the latest Carlisle City Council meeting to scrutinise Carlisle Renaissance. Councillors voiced concerns that some of their colleagues felt little “ownership” of the Renaissance project. Renaissance chairman Bryan Gray replied that it was there because the council voted for them. Mr Gray made it clear that there would be no theatre for Carlisle in the foreseeable future and that included the previously proposed replacement for the Stanwix Arts Theatre funded by the University. It was said that there was enough cultural activity going on and a new theatre was not crucial to the ‘City of Culture’ bid. This goes against all the recent publicity telling us that we would have a brand new theatre in the very near future. The Save the Lonsdale Group was totally left out of any plans when putting together the City of Culture bid. Mr Gray also went on to say that the University of Cumbria was experiencing financial difficulties and it should not waste its resources in shoring up its existing university sites such as Ambleside, but work towards the much bigger picture of making historic Carlisle into a brand new university city, even if it takes 50 years. It was also mentioned again that the city centre area around the town hall square should be exclusively for cafés and restaurants to create a continental type café culture. Ian McNichol, director of Carlisle Renaissance added that the Urban Design Guide supported that idea and that the Historic Core should be filled with little niche shops to attract the tourists. Carlisle is viewed by many as a predominately working class city, with a rich heritage that belongs to everyone. The many long standing shops in this area also contribute to the economy of the city. Carlisle is not a very big city, it doesn’t need to be zoned and gentrified or exclusive areas falsely created. A question was asked if any improvements were going to take place in the Botchergate area of the city. Brian Gray replied that the Citadel station and the square in front of the station were to be regenerated, and it would follow on naturally that people would then start to invest in Botchergate. It seems that the area the public have repeatedly put at the top of the list for improvements to the city is not going to receive any regeneration funding. It was also clear that there are many more plans for the city in the pipeline, including the city centre transport plans, and only the likes of the private-sector-led City Centre Partnership will be heavily involved in these decisions. A look at this letters page and on the newspaper blogs make it very clear that there are a lot of people out there who feel that their views and concerns are being completely ignored. JULIE TEMPLETON Finally, some action to rejuvenate Carlisle | Link
(News and STar) What is it about city planners? You wait years – decades even – for a place to be renovated, reborn, smartened up, then three different schemes all come along at once. Three schemes for Carlisle – the ‘historic quarter’, the Court Square area outside the station and the shopping paradise known at St Nicholas Gate – are set for redevelopment. The earth hasn’t moved yet, so I’m not getting too carried away, but it does seem as though cogs and wheels are slowly cranking. The city/county council scheme to alter traffic flow and widen pavements in and around the Cathedral is long overdue. The equation is simple: make visiting and shopping easier and less stressful and people will stay longer and are more likely to spend more. But parking has to be looked at as a way to encourage people into the city, rather than as a money-making scheme for the council. The Renaissance board have said they will start work on sorting out the chaos that you have to battle through if you want to use the rail system to and from Carlisle. And a decision is due tomorrow on revamping St Nick’s. Sadly, there’s been nothing saintly about this dreary run-down area for years. It has been a prime example of how throwing up some quick-build, make-it-and-they’ll-come-and-spend-money stores really don’t work. They look ugly and unappealing from the outside and their cold, barn-like interiors don’t encourage you to spend much time inside. The best thing to be said about it is that it provided a rat-run for motorists looking to get onto and off London Road. It should have been home to a new GP’s super surgery, but thoughtfully for all those struggling with ill-health, that is now being located up a 1-in-3 hill further along London Road where the buses don’t run so frequently and where there is less parking. But now plans have been drawn up to tear part of it down and rebuild it, increasing the amount of shopping space. First suggestions were dismissed by planners because they were “too contemporary” and didn’t fit in with nearby red brick buildings. Shame this didn’t occur to anyone years ago when the plans seemed to be nicked out of the bin of some eastern-bloc town council. Redeveloping this site should attract new businesses that will draw people who don’t just want cheap shoes and carpets. The whole of Botchergate needs an economic defibrilator, hopefully this will mark the start of its, dare I say it, renaissance. But the city council and Renaissance board have to raise their eyes above blueprints and road systems. They have to work to attract some big name shops and other businesses to the city. We can’t all be minimum wage shop assistants. Carlisle is never going to be like Oxford or Cambridge, or Manchester or Leeds. But the city should overtake places like Preston as a shopping, tourism and railway destination. York and Chester are both steeped in history, but manage to have thriving business and shopping centres and draw in hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. The fact that both have huge pedestrianised shopping areas may be a factor. It didn’t happen overnight for them and lord knows we’ve waited long enough in Carlisle, but at last we might hear the distant rumble of the earth movers. Show us you are an ideas man | Link
(News and STar) Bryan Gray of Carlisle Renaissance is reported in Monday’s News & Star (‘Renaissance will pull in £10m during 2010’, January 25) as saying: “We listen with interest to the ideas people put forward …” What a pity these ideas are simply ignored. The original Development Framework and Movement strategy consultants report in 2006 detailed various schemes and their relative popularity with those who answered a consultation exercise. This showed that the most popular scheme by far was the development of Botchergate. Carlisle citizens are still identifying this as an area desperate for attention, yet nothing is done. You reported that the Carlisle Renaissance proposed parking arrangements in Castle Street are still unsatisfactory, despite a huge protest and outcry. Save The Lonsdale, a popular grassroots campaign, is still battling on; the money spent on the City of Culture bid could have gone some way towards buying the Lonsdale and getting it done up. Bryan Gray adds “… we know we can’t transform the city alone. We are a partnership. We all need to work together …” It is extremely galling to be told that “our door is open” as some kind of amelioration for Carlisle Renaissance spending £6.6m of public money with no tangible results. These words aren’t cheap. Unfortunately, past experience has shown that they are probably also worthless. ELIZABETH ALLNUTT Prioritise people not quango projects | Link
(News and Star) The recent chaos, which has rendered the streets of Carlisle dangerous no-go areas and confined citizens to their homes, is a sad indictment of the city council. Its partner, Carlisle Renaissance, has spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on the pointless purchase of a property in Rickergate, when it appears its own budget cannot even stretch to that most basic of requirements – clean, safe streets. Expenditure on producing speculative applications for City of Culture status appears to be diverting much-needed resources from critical, front-line services. In desperate economic times, can no-one in the Civic Centre see the importance of prioritising the immediate needs of service delivery? Councillor Bloxham says he will take the lead in finding out what went wrong. Unfortunately, the country is full of people who are wise after the event: We need leaders before the catastrophe, not after it. I suggest he starts by finding out where Carlisle Renaissance gets its funding and submits an urgent request for resources to bolster the civic coffers. It seems only quangos have the limitless resources to pay the best part of £1m on a purchase that, in any private business, would constitute a waste. Only in the fantasy world of the quango can money be spent with shameless profligacy. One of the most tragic ironies of the last decade must surely be that, while many of our brave young people have sacrificed their lives for freedom and democracy in foreign lands, a pernicious cancer has been destroying the vital organs of our own political expression. No wonder The Cumberland News’ fascinating survey revealed a disinterest in politics: What value the ballot box, when unelected, clandestine cadres of “movers and shakers” seem to have such unrestricted, financial power? Whichever party wins the next General Election, they will need to wrestle with a forecast debt of £1.5 trillion. Such a daunting challenge can best be tackled by a vibrant, transparent democracy, in which everyone can feel confident their taxes are being used for vital services and not squandered on risky property development. WJ WYLLIE It’s time to deliver on vision | Link
(News & STar) The promise is unequivocal. This will be the year Carlisle Renaissance takes off, says its chairman Bryan Gray. He remains steadfastly optimistic that benefits from the regeneration initiative will be visible, transforming and widely welcomed by a supportive city enthusiastically focusing on its prosperous future. But in this, its fifth year since inception, even the Renaissance board will be keenly aware of intense pressure to show real, tangible progress. Mr Gray and his colleagues know as well as anyone in and around Carlisle that impatience for signs of value for money is growing; that vision will show results – sooner rather than later. Renaissance has come under fire from Michael Boaden, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Carlisle, for being unelected, unaccountable and making little progress in its five years since the floods. But Mr Gray insists the project is on course. He asserts last year was spent – at a cost of £1.2m – putting building blocks in place for delivery of a leading heritage city with a strong university and successful city centre. He is confident the first phase of the new university campus will open in 2013-14, despite its current financial difficulties. Faced with heavy criticism and some deep public cynicism, he and his board colleagues must know the clock is ticking and credibility depends on this being delivery year. Carlisle regeneration centred on university development | Link
(News and Star) One of the reasons originally given to putting forward a bid for Carlisle to become the City of Culture was that it would attract students to Cumbria University and help retain graduates in the future. How can Carlisle Renaissance and the City Council justify the now estimated £5.5 million cost of bidding for the City of Culture, when the university is in such a dire financial state that campuses are being closed, library facilities severely reduced and students being moved around in the middle of their courses when they had been happily settled? Some time ago, I was present at a council meeting when councillor Stevenson expressed concerns to the leader about whether or not the university had sufficient funds to develop the Caldew Riverside site. The whole regeneration of Carlisle, let alone the City of Culture bid, is very much centred round the university development. It looks now as if the aspirations of Carlisle Renaissance and the City Council are based on very shaky foundations. Why are the public only getting to hear about this now? The latest spin and hype is that the bid for City of Culture will produce 2,000 jobs if successful. Where is the evidence for this? If the university is in trouble why would the City of Culture bid succeed? It might make good headlines but seems to be based on wishful thinking. What is even more worrying is who will be ultimately responsible for picking up the pieces if things go badly wrong. The latest remarks from Carlisle Renaissance indicate that the estimated £5.5m needed to fund the events if Carlisle was successful, would be funded by the NWDA and English Heritage and the Arts Council North West. As I understand it, the council, as financial guarantor, will be ultimately responsible if this funding fails to materialise. I also understand that Carlisle City Council has agreed to consider re-directing and re-focusing its existing resources in the run-up to and during the 2013 City of Culture bid. Is it to be made public where these resources are to be re-directed from? It seems that with the City of Culture bid, Carlisle Renaissance and the City Council have once again, allowed their aspirations to run out of control. The university is no longer the solid foundation it once appeared to be. The City of Culture bid appears very hollow when viewed against the university’s financial troubles and makes a mockery of the students and staff who are currently so adversely affected by it. It also seems an act of irresponsible lunacy to use the city council, desperately trying to save £2 million without affecting services, as a “financial guarantor.” JULIE TEMPLETON The value of Renaissance | Link
(News and Star) We note with interest the auditor’s surprise that the properties acquired by the council in Rickergate have been valued as worthless after three years. Carlisle Renaissance are supposed to have shelved any plans for the demolition of properties in the area. Does this valuation of a popular restaurant and a sound family home at £0 imply the opposite? ELIZABETH ALLNUTT Shabby entrance to ‘City of Culture' | Link
(News and Star) Before all this renaissance and culture, how about a proper bus station with a manned, all-night toilet? That would do more for the tourist trade. The money spent on Renaissance “consultants” would probably have paid for one, with lots left over to start to turn the Lonsdale into a real theatre (just a theatre – we already have an art college, so we don’t need another art centre). L DAVIS Scalegate Road Carlisle The police station, fire station, magistrates’ court and houses in Warwick Street, designed and built by Percy Dalton and Laing, are among the most important elements of Carlisle’s built environment at a time when the city was also at the forefront of social improvement. The challenge for Renaissance and the city’s leaders is to preserve these public buildings and to adapt them to new uses. IAN CARUANA Peter Street Carlisle City can manage without | Link
(News and Star) RECENTLY there has been a glut of patronising articles pointing out how Carlisle Renaissance are leading the way in bringing culture to the people of Carlisle. In the paper recently, Mr Eland, resident artist and spokesman for Carlisle Renaissance, is reported to have said that “people are starting to become more culturally aware in Carlisle”, and “are beginning to engage in culture and the arts”. The desire for culture has always been present – people took to the streets to fight for the Lonsdale theatre, the Green Room and the Stanwix theatre were always well supported. There has always been a demand for good musicians, tickets for Van Morrison and his like sell out fast. There have always been jazz and blues clubs in Carlisle. The cathedral plays host to classical musicians. Alternatives to what is on offer in Botchergate were always there and when or if the university is built in Caldew Riverside there will no doubt be a lot more venues like the Brickyard and the Source opening up in the area. This will happen whether Carlisle Renaissance are there or not. Maybe the council should follow the lead of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council who last week announced that it was to withdraw its annual funding of £300,000 for the Regeneration company Regenco. Earlier in the year Bradford Centre Regeneration Company and Tees Valley Regeneration Company also had their council funds axed. At least the councillors have to declare any vested interests when putting forward proposals, unlike the private sector led regeneration agencies and their many offshoots. Julie Templeton Committee Member Save Our Streets Corporation Road Carlisle We don’t lack aspirations | Link
(News and Star) I READ the article stating that Carlisle Renaissance is going to launch a bid to become UK City of Culture 2013 with a certain degree of scepticism.SO WE ARE now told that we are “starting to be culturally aware in Carlisle”. What have we all been doing then for the last three years?IN THE piece in the paper about Carlisle being a City of Culture it says that the people have to get behind it. First a Cumbrian artist now living in San Francisco wrote to the paper deploring the lack of culture in the city centre. A short while after this, Carlisle Renaissance released the ‘Culture in Carlisle’ report and declared that it was going to launch a bid to become the UK City of Culture 2013. This, according to an earlier article in the paper, came as a complete surprise to the Council Leader Mike Mitchelson, who is also on the board of Carlisle Renaissance. It seems strange that the leader and the council were left out of the loop. Could it be that Carlisle Renaissance wants the public to be more accepting, via its involvement in a less controversial initiative than the plan to destroy city homes and significant elements of our heritage? If the money spent on consultants and design companies, wages to quango executives etc had been put to better use, perhaps Carlisle could by now have had a theatre and be a city to be proud of. Bryan Gray says that the city now needs an executive director for the Cultural Development Group. This is in addition to all the other groups recently formed in the Historic Quarter. Carlisle does not need any more patronising articles pointing out a lack of aspirations from its residents. The aspirations have always been there, only the money to see it through has been lacking. IAN MITCHELL Dalston Road Carlisle Residents and visitors crying out to celebrate cultural treasures
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(News and Star) “CITY of Culture.” Hmm? “Public support is crucial.” Hmm? “Residents should get behind these proposals.” Hmm? “People are starting to become more culturally aware.” Hmm? “We need support from the public.” Hmm? Was I really part of the march to save a listed, Art Deco building in the city to be restored as a theatre and venue for performing arts? Did I stand in the freezing cold and rain helping to collect 15,000 names on a petition calling for this building to be saved and restored as a theatre and venue for performing arts? Have I given up time in countless meetings to promote a listed, Art Deco building to be restored as a venue for theatre and performing arts? There is heavy support for this building and its future use. Residents are already behind proposals for it. And as for “people are starting to become more culturally aware,” I nearly began chewing the carpet. Thank you but we are culturally aware, we just don’t have the venue we have been asking for. We take our money and our trade where there is culture or we do without. The Lonsdale was built “for the kinematic and live entertainment of the people of Cumberland”. It is in an accessible area, close to public transport. It would regenerate the area. We are handing Renaissance a popular place on a plate. So you need support from the public ... please can the public have some support from you? I think this would be called democracy. EDNA B CROFT, Walkmill Crescent, Kingfisher Park, Carlisle We’ll need more than Sands to be Capital of Culture | Link
(News and Star) Much as I love Carlisle – and I do, I really do – I confess to a struggle with the idea of it becoming the UK’s cultural capital. Nothing’s impossible, of course. Never say never. Things can change. They can change in a wind-whistling rush – where there’s a will, a favourable light and sudden discovery of a theatre. And to look on an even brighter side, if ever there were to be a prize awarded to the city showcasing a culture of no culture, well “hands down” springs to mind. But it seems likely Ben Bradshaw – he being the Culture Secretary – had in mind something a touch more elegant than Black-eye Friday and that quaint local custom of biting off friends’ ears when he invited cities to bid for the country’s cultural crown. He was probably looking for a sophistication that makes the difference between a fine wine and 15 pints and a punch-up down Botchergate; the discernment separating Milan’s elegant Galleria Vittorio Emanuele from charity shops and chewing gum-stained pavements; a socialising habit owing more to chatting in street cafes than herding drunks into a designated boozing strip – and locking them in until they’re plastered. And what he’d make of Puccini in a sports hall would be no more than a guess but... So yes, it’s a challenge seeing Carlisle as the Florence of the north or lauded as the UK’s answer to Barcelona – although our cathedral is at least finished, which is more than they can say in Barca. Culture? Hard to know what to say really – perhaps that we’re waiting to be amazed? But do we actually know what it is, should be or could be in Carlisle, where thought-provoking street-art translates into ruptured purple bin bags? It’s a toughie for our bidders – Carlisle Renaissance, city and county councils, Cumbria Tourism and Tullie House Museum. A chicken and egg decision... and do calm down chaps, that’s not another organic reference. Here’s the quandary: Which comes first, a community’s inclination to accept and enjoy “culture” or a city authority’s determination to provide it? And who, in the rush to submit a box-ticking cultural capital bid by October, decides what kind of feast should be laid on Carlisle’s table for arts-starved citizens? Beats me. If I had answers to those imponderables I’d be sitting comfortably on a cash-rich quango, living in a seven-bedroomed pile with eight acres, commissioning pricey consultants to tell me what little I knew already; that a city’s culture evolves naturally from its people – unless the brakes are applied by a few who think they know better. If the majority of people in Carlisle prefer gummy streets, gated drunks, making-do-and-mending in a hall with acoustic rigor mortis, I’ll make supper from my recycling box and all its bottles. If the naturally evolved culture of this city happily accepts limitations of hard drinking, drug dealing, paella and cheap handbags from market stalls at Christmas and denial of anything beyond second-rate – because that’s what folks here are used to – I’ll stop dreaming of an evening at a proper theatre, in my home town, with a box of Black Magic. And I won’t do that. It’s such a lovely dream. I prefer not to believe any of that negative artless stuff. People aren’t wired that way. More likely, a few, who spent too long thinking they knew better, have frustrated collective aspirations with flat refusal to rise to the challenge of allowing this remarkable city to become the best it could be. But they couldn’t stifle them. Though many a snigger greeted Carlisle’s announcement of bidding for cultural capital status, there’s a whiff of expectation around the old place. Serious intent requires raising the game – and game-raising always brings a buzz of excitement. Word is other cities bidding for cultural excellence include Oxford – dreaming spires may be a problem; Durham – Pah! We can do history; Birmingham – reputedly the finest concert hall in Europe, Birmingham Royal Ballet, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, galleries, theatres. Could be tricky. Leeds – Opera North, Northern Ballet, theatres coming out of its ears, designer shopping arcades, street art, edgy architecture... challenging. Stoke on Trent – potteries. Hull. Hull? It used to have fishing – until they put it in a museum. All is not lost. All is never lost until the fat lady sings and she hasn’t even learned her lyrics yet. Game-raising plans are underway, which ought to mean brakes are off. And that has to be good because, first or last past the post, any cultural uplift will make Carlisle a well-deserving winner – at last. Art icon or laughing stock? | Link
(News and Star) THE words Carlisle and culture don’t often feature in national reports. The only culture the city is famed for at the moment is the drinking culture of the University of Botchergate. Which is desperately sad when you consider the wealth of talent the region is responsible for and continues to produce. But the city’s council bosses have declared they will launch a bid to become the UK’s city of Culture 2013. They have to submit a plan to the Government by October, detailing the culture to be found here. Hopefully this plan will not need to be drawn up with the help of costly consultants. It strikes me that Carlisle needs a few things to be in place before we can start calling ourselves a city with culture, let alone the UK’s city of culture. For a start, we need a proper, professionally run, designated theatre rather than make do with a giant sports hall. Preferably, this would be the old Lonsdale cinema, if not, then a new build somewhere in the city centre and within walking distance of the train station. It should have a main auditorium, a studio and an exhibition space. We need a decent, stand-alone art gallery with space to feature established artists and room for those at college or who have just finished their courses to exhibit and sell their works. We have to move beyond the attitude of ‘making the most of what we’ve got’, which smacks more of ‘make do and mend’. The Renaissance project has promised to develop culture in the city and local artist Derek Eland is involved. But we have a host of poets, authors and artists who are nationally and internationally respected and vastly experienced (Melvyn Bragg, Margaret Harrison, Keith Tyson, Sarah Hall, Hunter Davies, Conrad Atkinson, Jacob Polley) who need to be involved in at least some form of brainstorming sessions on what we could and should do for the city. Sure, our promotion and presentation of the area’s rich history has to be improved. But we need more than that if this bid isn’t going to make us a laughing stock across the rest of the nation and if the brains trust behind the Carlisle Renaissance is serious about making the city a better, more exciting and interesting place to live and visit. Get us all involved! | Link
(News and Star) What has happened to the ‘Carlisle’ in Carlisle Renaissance? You, me and everyone else out there are part of Carlisle and yet we know next to nothing and we are not involved. City councillors at a meeting set up especially to oversee and scrutinise the work of Carlisle Renaissance were continually asking: “What is going on?” If our elected representatives don’t know and are not involved, what hope is there for the ordinary citizen? Some progress has been made with Carlisle Renaissance. This has taken the form of endless smaller groups dealing with separate issues – eg, the Caldew Riverside Partnership Group and an associated Project Board; the Historic Quarter Steering Group and an associated leadership group, a Carlisle Christmas City Working Group; and Carlisle Transport Working Group. Doubtless there are more. Who sits on all these groups? It seems to be the same people. Where are you and me? Is this for Carlisle? Renaissance should benefit all. The chairman of the meeting raised the issue of representatives from the communities sitting on these groups. I hope that all councillors and officers involved with Renaissance will take this suggestion forward. Let’s hope it’s not too little too late. Muddled messages over Renaissance | Link
(News and Star) Rumbling disgruntlement at progress or otherwise made by Carlisle Renaissance shows little sign of abating.
And chances of views changing from negative to positive in a hurry are slim, to say the least. Harsh recession has taught us all to measure what we get against what we pay. Scant evidence of getting anything much for a demonstrably heavy outlay naturally goes against the grain of budgeting for best value in a tough financial climate. So, while Renaissance board chairman Bryan Gray may be right to assume Carlisle City Council’s Labour group leader Michael Boaden is failing to understand the role and purpose of the regeneration body, he might be tempted to ask how and why that misunderstanding arises. In truth. it’s one shared by many Carlisle people who had expected to see delivery of change before now – improvements to their city that would have been impossible without Renaissance. Expectations were high for a transformed city with new vibrancy, a progressive city with renewed confidence and plenty to boast about. Mr Boaden complains there has been little meaningful progress in that direction and that the council’s contribution of £250,000 a year is not buying the value anticipated. He adds that important local projects have moved on without Renaissance involvement and accuses the board of: “Commissioning expensive consultants to produce reports that in many cases are telling us all what we already know”. Defence that Renaissance’s purpose is to create a vision for Carlisle is unlikely to satisfy critics who already feel that “pulling people together and looking for ways around problems,” wasn’t quite what was promised. Perhaps misunderstanding stems from poor delivery of muddled messages. If hopes for Carlisle’s rebirth could never have been pinned on Renaissance, someone should have said so... four years ago. Enlightened vision? Not this scheme | Link
(News and Star) Dear City Councillors (and officers), It has been a good week for the headline makers/writers. Signing of the NDR followed by upbeat news from Kingmoor Park and the local university. Even the lead editorial in the newspaper chipped in with a rosy view of the world as seen from Carlisle. In these difficult times it should be good news for your citizens as well, with the prospect of smooth-flowing traffic, employment opportunities and quality education on the doorstep. It looks like all our money you invested in Growth Point bids, Carlisle Vision (Renaissance), Strategic Housing Market Assessment and Urban Development Guidelines might be paying off. Fine-sounding words spill from the pages of these initiative documents describing how enlightened planning and development processes will ensure that as Carlisle grows, it does so in a way that ensures this vision becomes reality. However, challenges lie ahead and vigilance is required on the journey. One such challenge is knocking on your door. A developer has lodged an application to attach 900 houses to the northern perimeter of our city at Crindledyke. The documents supporting the application run to an impressive 1,300 pages and your average citizen would need to devote their annual holiday to assess the impact. Fortunately some of your citizens care enough about your vision to make this effort. What we find is a proposed development which is essentially a bolt-on, bringing an additional 3,000 people and 6,000 car movements per day into the existing infrastructure – through a single entry/exit). This is the equivalent of a town the size of Appleby or Silloth. Moreover, the application does not include any provision for educational or medical facilities. No adequate capacity exists near the development. Is this integrated planning or is it assumed this will be sorted out by the city and its council tax payers when problems inevitably surface down the line? This proposed development does not fit the profile of your enlightened vision. You have a chance to shape our city for the future – affordable housing, park and ride provision, high quality public transport, education, culture, and leisure facilities. That mix will attract the proper type of growth, not the growth that comes through ‘steroid-induced’ urban sprawl. This requires not only vision but courage as well. Times are tough but the easiest option is rarely the right one.
NEIL CONACHER Carlisle, watch Penrith... | Link
(News and Star) ANYONE who cares about the future of Carlisle should be watching recent developments in Penrith with close attention. I WAS unable to read JG Byers’ letter (Letters, July 16) but from the answer in the paper it must have been about the complaints that have been made over many months. The increased footage awarded to Sainsbury’s in the stalled New Squares development has been hailed as good news and Sainsbury’s as the saviour. Has a passing thought been given to how this will affect the small independent traders in the town? Penrith is well known for the interest and diversity of its shopping and attracts many visitors on the strength of this. Has Eden handed over Penrith to Sainsbury’s? We now read (News & Star, July 25) about the problems of Lowther Manelli, the developers originally behind the New Squares development, and how Eden Council has voted to decline their solution of a Company Voluntary Arrangement. In the short-term, Eden would seem to be working in the best interests of their rate payers. There are, however, a number of questions posed here which do not have immediate obvious answers. What is the relationship between Eden, Sainsbury’s and Lowther Manelli? Who has the whip hand? If Lowther Manelli is dropped as a developer, who will replace them? Will the project be re-tendered? And at more expense to the rate-payers? Who will have a say in the tender brief? Will Sainsbury’s, who now have a large interest in the site, be influential in this process? What will be the outcome for the small traders and people of Penrith? Carlisle citizens, and especially elected councillors, will do well to follow closely what is happening. Penrith council tax payers still have the possibility of using the local democratic process to oppose any schemes which they may feel are detrimental to their town. Eden Council is still nominally in charge. This will not be the case in Carlisle where the city council has handed all responsibility for developments similar to the New Squares scheme in Penrith to Carlisle Renaissance. It is hoped that Eden Council, as elected representatives, will be able to stay in charge of the development and affect its outcome for the benefit of Eden residents. It is not comfortable or reassuring to conjecture what might happen in Carlisle if a similar situation were to arise and Carlisle Renaissance were in charge. ELIZABETH ALLNUTT Committee member, Save Our Streets Peter Street Carlisle Planning only for power | Link
(News and Star) I have just read the article on ‘What Makes Cumbria Special’ (News & Star, June 29). The people interviewed said that what they liked was the friendliness, the communities and the slower pace of life. Why, then, are the people in power doing their best to destroy what is good about this area? Despite Ian Gray’s statement to the papers that Carlisle Renaissance was not pursuing the development plans for Rickergate, all the planning documents issued by the various bodies such as the North West Development Agency and Cumbria Vision are being aligned so that when the time is ready for them, they can just move in and do practically whatever they like. Margaret Beckett’s proposed changes to planning policies, ‘Planning for Prosperous Economies’, will make it practically impossible for anyone to challenge decisions if they are connected to economic growth. Even the ‘needs’ test, which requires developers to show that there is a need for their proposal, is to be done away with. These changes are purely to make it even easier for the investors and developers to decimate communities in the name of profit. This will not just affect Rickergate – these policies will be used throughout the city. With Cumbria Vision, the NWDA and Cumbria County Council combining forces for a new delivery structure for regeneration and the representatives from the nuclear industry, university academics and the same five or six private sector businessmen who pop up in just about every board and committee going, making all the decisions, you can’t help wondering how much longer local government can hang on, particularly when other services are being outsourced. Why bother voting when it is obvious that big business is in charge? Although there is a recession, there will be no shortage of funding for economic development in Cumbria, largely thanks to funds being poured in to compensate for the fact that our county is being sold off to the powerful nuclear industry and designated as the ‘energy coast of Britain’ or, as some see it, the ‘nuclear waste dumping ground of Europe’. The regeneration of our communities should be a bottom-up approach, taking people with them to improve their lives and the lives of future generations. It should not be imposed by what is becoming a more and more unelected, unaccountable all-powerful force. JULIE TEMPLETON Get kids involved | Link
(News and Star) I’D LIKE to make a plea for the views of the younger citizens of Carlisle and local areas – including schoolchildren – to be taken into consideration for the multi-million pound Renaissance project. It struck me this week that younger members of our society have not yet been involved, even though they are the ones who will have to live longest with any changes made. Acclaimed Cumbrian artist Derek Eland has been working with Carlisle City Council for some months now and has started a project to get youngsters to say what they like and don’t like about the city and what they would like to see change. It was only recently that Renaissance bosses had the brainstorm that culture and heritage had to be important factors in any reshaping of the city. We want our youngsters to learn, live and work here, not grow up and move to more vibrant and diverse places with their skills and expertise and salaries. Cities are for living in, not just working in and the people who are our future should have some voice in how it looks. Renaissance? Tackle neglect first | Link
(News and Star) I have watched carefully the Carlisle Renaissance project, which seems to have adopted some problems recently. There are many other things that should be done to improve our city, and they are only small jobs which would please the council tax payers. The picture I took, right, on March 24 is a fine example of neglect, or is it Renaissance with a lift? Or maybe that old film from the 1960s, The Day Of The Triffidds. BRIAN IRWIN Funding available if you try | Link
(News and Star) SO THE feasibility study proved the Lonsdale supporters right, but now we can’t afford it says Mike Mitchelson. THE ITV programme I hope will escape the axe is The Krypton Factor (Your Choice, News & Star, March 5). We probably couldn’t afford the Lanes and the Sands Centre in the past but we got them through the vision and hard work of the councillors then in charge. As Edna Croft stated (News & Star, March 10) what we need now is a business plan so that we can apply for lottery money. As I understand it £11,000 was spent on the feasibility study yet £19,000 was allocated, so why can’t the remainder be used to get together a business plan? Even better maybe Carlisle Renaissance can try to achieve some credibility with the local population by doing something concrete for a change. In the past they proposed a theatre arts complex that was to cost a staggering £19 or was it £20 million, real pie in the sky. If they come in now and support the Lonsdale project by funding the preparation of a business plan and giving their wholehearted support to help raise the £11 million finance through the channels which I assume they have (or are they really just a talking shop?) they might eventually be taken seriously by the citizens of Carlisle. DAVID RAMSHAW Beaver Road Carlisle So much untapped potential | Link
(News and Star) The Carlisle Renaissance project is like many of the schemes started in Carlisle over the years, full of good intentions, but sadly goes off the mark. Bringing tourists into the historic centre is an admirable aim, but stopping parking in Castle Street will have the opposite effect. Out of town shopping centres work because they have parking and bus access; conversely stopping parking in the town centre will reduced the number of people in the city centre shops. We need to encourage people into the centre, possibly by re-allowing buses into it and retaining the parking as it is. As for the castle, sadly rejoining it to the centre is no longer financially viable, but it could be made more interesting. As a young boy I used to love going into the various rooms of the castle and to see the artifacts and displays there. Last time I went in most rooms were empty; let’s bring out the displays again and show how it used to look. Bringing more people into Carlisle is not rocket science and it does not need a big spend to do it, we already have much of the means to do it, if only we looked harder. As for Botchergate, this can only be improved over time, start in the city centre and eventually it can spread to other areas. Finally, Sainsbury’s supermarket. At last the west of the city is probably going to get a major supermarket. Too often the west is forgotten and we have to travel to Tesco in the east or Morrisons and Asda in the north. Journeys that should not be necessary. Yes it may increase traffic in Caldewgate, but it will help reduce it on Scotland Road and Warwick Road. So in conclusion, let’s work on the historic centre and Caldewgate, but let’s keep it within reason and do it soon.
ALLAN STEVENSON Planning inspector backed evidence of SOS | Link
(News and Star) I read with interest the front page article about the exorbitant amount of money spent on consultants on Carlisle Renaissance when so little actual work has been achieved (News & Star, February 18). One of the explanations as to why the schemes may have foundered was the campaign by residents in Rickergate and the resulting uncertainty over the purchase of properties there. I would like to point out, that although the Save Our Streets campaign gave evidence there, the future of Rickergate was thoroughly tested by the Local Plan Inquiry. In the inquiry report, the planning inspector made it quite clear that the Carlisle Renaissance consultants’ plans for the area were ill thought-out and unacceptable. It was this considered report which was fundamental in changing the perspective of Carlisle Renaissance about Rickergate. If a senior planning inspector could come to these conclusions, there was plainly something very wrong with the original consultants’ report. I would also like to pose the question how does calling in outside consultants helps to generate wealth locally? Public funds donated for the regeneration of Carlisle are already leaking away from the city into the economies of Liverpool and Manchester where the consultants are based. Surely it is not beyond the imagination of those employed in Carlisle Renaissance to use all the resources available to maximum effect to stimulate the local economy by using local expertise? Perhaps they should be earning their salaries by using some imagination rather than taking the easy option and calling in consultants? ELIZABETH ALLNUTT Forget ‘historic core’ – look at local needs
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(News and Star) Once again the Carlisle Renaissance quango set out their latest proposals to ‘improve’ those parts of the city least in need of it. The general consensus of the townspeople as frequently expressed in your columns is that the so-called Historic Quarter should be left as it is. What people repeatedly ask for is that something should be done about the disgraceful condition of the Botchergate and Caldewgate areas and to save the Lonsdale. It is time Carlisle people were given what they want rather than what fly-by-night outsiders think they should have imposed on them. And unelected outsiders at that. The city council and the Renaissance Board go on talking about “Historic Carlisle”. But what is there left in historic Carlisle to attract anyone? The cathedral is beautiful and, indeed, famed for its welcome, but most of the nave has gone, and, it seems, visitors, on average, rarely stay longer than 10 minutes. And as for Roman Carlisle, not one Roman brick remains standing. Any visible Roman remains are at least 20 miles away with little public transport available. The castle looks impressive, but once inside is so deadly dull that it is not worth the entrance fee nor the physical effort involved in getting to it. Forget historic Carlisle and tourism. Proper jobs, development and trade is the commonsense Renaissance we need. Forget the developers’ schemes to pave over the town from the centre. It would make more sense to restore our market town heritage and allow cars to park again outside the Old Town Hall. It would liven up the town centre. At the moment it is mostly dead space. I remember when Carlisle was crammed full of people; when one could hardly walk up Botchergate for the throngs of people on the pavements, and it was the same on English Street and Castle Street. Perhaps it would make more sense to attract locals back into the town centre rather than tourists who will never come anyway. JUNE CF BARNES Recovery is not an impossible task | Link
(News and Star) IT is perfectly feasible to talk yourself into a recession; entirely possible to invite the kind of trouble an economic slump will bring. Some would say we’re pretty good at that. Less straightforward is the converse. Not quite so easy to talk up recovery. Less simple to will back buoyancy in business and drive confidence in returning prosperity. But difficult doesn’t translate into impossible. In Cumbria a dogged determination to keep faith in recovery and work for growth in the regional economy has seen the county bucking national trends by defying the harshest ravages of what has been described as the worst recession since 1945. County business leaders are cautiously optimistic about the state of the region’s economy, pointing to the expansion of blue chip companies, growth in the nuclear industry, local enterprise and continuing job creation as signs of hope rooted in honest endeavour and skill. They remain convinced that here nothing should be dismissed as unachievable. Caution is necessary wherever optimism is encouraged. There are no magic potions for success; we can’t hide from hard times and even the best of the county’s talents will not guarantee escape from degrees of disappointment. But slumps have been worked through before and will be again, with application of innovation, imagination and hard work. We are, however, all in this together and if defiance of recession is to continue, there must be mutual cooperation bridging private and public sectors – flexibility and adaptability applied to fill empty premises, business rates made manageable and trading conditions less of an uphill struggle through bureaucracy. And few local companies fighting fiercely toward recovery should be expected to accept without frustration Carlisle Renaissance Board’s view that £2m spent on consultants and four years of thinking was nothing – in the grand scheme of things. In a recessionary scheme of things, that sizeable sum will represent waste and missed opportunity. Buying buildings OK for ‘vision’ | Link
(News and Star) I AM responding to councillor Boaden’s tabled motion at a recent Carlisle City Council meeting, calling on the council to buy empty properties in the now rapidly-deteriorating Post Office end of Warwick Road. The leader of the council was quoted as saying that it was unrealistic and where would the money come from? He also said it was a fallacy to think that the council has millions of pounds to buy empty buildings. There was no such problem when the council decided to acquire properties in Rickergate with a view to site assembly. The public of Carlisle has a right to know how much taxpayers’ money the council has spent on feasibility studies, consultants, urban designers and the upkeep and wages of the Carlisle Renaissance Board. The council is expected to pay £955,000 towards the Carlisle Renaissance delivery team. How can the council justify this when council workers are facing redundancies and cuts in wages, and council tax payers of Carlisle are facing an insecure and uncertain future. If the council had used local planners and designers, at least they might have come up with something realistic and sustainable. Whenever I attended any of the presentations on the regeneration of the city and asked or overheard anyone else questioning the scale of the developments shown in the glossy design guides, it was explained that these were visionary or inspirational images only. Why then waste public money printing and putting these designs out for consultation if there was never any realistic chance of them being built? JULIE TEMPLETON Committee member Save our Streets Corporation Road Carlisle People want action not more planning | Link
(News and Star) WHEN Carlisle’s Renaissance was launched in response to the disastrous flooding of 2005, it was widely welcomed as a grand plan with positive ideas for a city in need of regeneration. Four years after that momentous launch, there will surely be disappointed frustration that 2009 is to be yet another year of much more talking about another collection of positive ideas. Bryan Gray, chairman of the Carlisle Renaissance board has promised this year will be one for unveiling visionary new proposals for Carlisle’s multi-million pound rebirth. There will be huge progress – but not in building work. Great strides – but only in clarity of what’s to come. It will be a year for decision and nailing a detailed vision certain to excite the population of Carlisle, he says. He might well find that an order taller than he would care to confront. Mr Gray is conscious of public impatience and frustration over what is perceived as little or nothing doing on the Renaissance front. He and his board should not underestimate those negatives. Successful redevelopment of the city will live or die by the support or otherwise of its citizens. And initially enthusiastic engagement is already diluting in the passage of too long a time with no visible progress. The purpose of this project was to reshape the city by design. Renaissance is already in danger of being overtaken by events, as the struggling economy threatens to reshape it by default. Pulling Carlisle’s now empty Woolworths store under the Renaissance umbrella may not necessarily ease those mounting difficulties. Will Carlisle city centre benefit most from that closed store being held in year-long suspension of vacancy, awaiting the unveiling of vision and clarity? Or would not more urgent, immediate efforts to encourage new occupiers to fill the gap in Carlisle’s retail heartland do more for a city and its people, now fighting on so many fronts? Council needs to look south | Link
(News and Star) RE THE city council Renaissance scheme between Greenmarket and Carlisle Castle. The ruling group of the city council should have a walk down Botchergate. That’s where money needs to be spent, bearing in mind any visitor coming to Carlisle by road coming down London Road into Botchergate would be absolutely amazed at the state of the entrance to our city. What are these councillors there for? Can they not see that there’s nothing wrong with the area that they are talking about? It is adequate and the people of Carlisle like it the way it is. Please look at Botchergate, spend money there. That’s where it is needed. JOHN ROBINSON Morton Park Carlisle |
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