Carlisle Renaissance boss: We are making progress
Last updated at 10:10, Thursday, 28 January 2010

Carlisle Renaissance chiefs delivered a positive end-of-year report and strove to counter suggestions that some city councillors have felt “locked out” of the organisation’s work.

Renaissance chairman Bryan Gray spoke about the progress which the regeneration project has made before a meeting of the city council’s scrutiny and overview committee in Carlisle.

His responses – including a detailed exposition of Renaissance projects and a promise to hold workshops to get councillors more involved – was warmly welcomed.

Mr Gray began by outlining the Renaissance aim to achieve four “transformational” goals: developing Caldew Riverside for the University of Cumbria; developing Carlisle’s historic quarter; strengthening the city centre’s appeal for retail, leisure and culture; and supporting business growth along the city’s “M6 corridor”.

But three councillors – Mary Styth, Jessica Riddle and Trevor Allison – voiced concerns that some of their colleagues felt little “ownership” of the Renaissance project.

“City councillors have felt a bit locked out,” said Mrs Styth, though she said the initiative represented a fantastic opportunity.

Mrs Riddle asked whether the Renaissance project had been “riding on the coat tails of a lot of work done by the city council”.

Mr Gray responded: “It’s irrelevant. We’re here to help you. Renaissance doesn’t exist without the city council.

“If you don’t want it, we go away. We have no separate life. We’re here to work together.”

Mr Gray went on to give a detailed explanation of projects which the Renaissance team are working to see achieved, explaining that he felt Carlisle has not achieved its full potential.

He said: “It’s about repositioning Carlisle and celebrating what we have got.

“It’s a great city but perhaps we haven’t realised our full potential and not appreciated what got in front of us. We have got things which other cities would die for but we just don’t properly recognise or present them. We need a better visitor information centre.

“We have a wonderful art gallery but it needs more investment.”

Improvements to the historic environment of the city would generate more visitors and spending.

Councillor Jacquelyne Geddes commented on a recent weekend visit she made to York, saying it had been a Sunday afternoon and there was no traffic yet the city had been “heaving”. She asked how Carlisle could achieve that while keeping traders happy.

Mr Gray said: “You have got to want to do it. We have to be able to cope with the difficult decisions we have to make. It has taken a long time to achieve Castle Street [a reference to its planned revamp]. It’s a small piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Every piece is a step towards that picture.

“York is ahead of us but what we have got is the raw material – the cathedral, Tullie House, the castle.”

He spoke of radical plans to make the city centre more “people friendly”, possibly removing traffic from the area around the citadel.

As the meeting ended, councillors Styth and Allison confirmed that it should become a regular event.

Mrs Styth added: “If our role is scrutiny and monitoring then I feel we have achieved that.”

Taken from The News & Star / [Link] / [Back to top]

Carlisle Renaissance will pull in £10 million during 2010 - claim
Last updated at 16:05, Monday, 25 January 2010

City Renaissance chiefs say £10 million of investment will be pumped into Carlisle this year.

Renaissance bosses say the initiative – which was launched in response to the 2005 floods – is bearing fruit and attracting investment to the city.

But the scheme has come in for severe criticism from the Labour Parliamentary candidate for Carlisle, Michael Boaden after it was revealed that the cost of the scheme to date is £6.6m or £136 for every household in Carlisle.

Of that, £3.11m went on salaries and Renaissance priority projects and the rest was spent on Renaissance schemes managed by Carlisle City Council.

Mr Boaden said it is “an extraordinary sum of money” with little to show for it except “a lot of reports and consultants’ documents and precious little on the ground”.

Simon Osman of Save Our Streets, the group formed to fight the redevelopment of Rickergate, branded the spending a “scandalous waste”. But Renaissance chiefs say efforts are being made to improve the city and that “huge change cannot happen overnight”.

Multi-million pound projects such as the Roman Gateway will give people a new gallery. Court Square will be made into better public space and work to improve the Town Hall will get underway.

The Welcoming the Light event, planned for March 7, will attract 7,000 people to the city. This is a procession from the Market Cross to Bitts Park including a heliosphere – a large balloon with an acrobat suspended underneath to create the illusion that they are flying.

Bryan Gray, chair of Carlisle Renaissance, said: “Carlisle Renaissance’s ambitions for Carlisle are huge. They are not quick wins. We want the city to be a leading heritage city, with a world-class university, successful city centre, and the infrastructure to support growth.

“Less than a year ago our founding partners – Carlisle City Council, Cumbria County Council, and the regional development agency – agreed these priorities.

“It has been tough getting to where we are today – huge change cannot happen overnight. But now, the building blocks are in place and investment in Carlisle Renaissance is attracting much more cash that otherwise may never have come to Carlisle.

“In 2010 alone, we will see investment in Carlisle – brought in through Renaissance – approaching up to £10m. That money is hard at work for the city.

“People have a right to know what we are doing and why.

“We listen with interest to the ideas people put forward, because we know we can’t transform the city alone. We are a partnership. We all need to work together to achieve the best for Carlisle. And we need to get on with the serious job at hand. Our door is open – we urge everyone who wants to, to get involved.”

Taken from The News & Star / [Link] / [Back to top]

Renaissance costing £136 for every household in Carlisle
Last updated at 11:39, Friday, 22 January 2010

The bill for Carlisle Renaissance has topped £6.6 million – the equivalent of £136 for every household in Carlisle district.

The initiative was launched in response to the 2005 floods but it has come under increasing criticism for the slow rate of progress.

A scheme to redevelop Rickergate was shelved while other projects, such as a revamp for Castle Street and the ‘historic quarter’, have stalled.

Figures provided for The Cumberland News show £6.66m of public money has been spent on Renaissance so far. Of that, £3.11m went on salaries and ‘Renaissance priority projects’.

The rest was spent on Renaissance schemes managed by Carlisle City Council.

Most of the cash, £4.31m, came from the Northwest Regional Development Agency, but the city council has contributed more than £2m.

Councillor Michael Boaden, leader of the council’s Labour opposition and the party’s Parliamentary candidate for Carlisle, has long been a critic of Renaissance. He was aghast at the latest figures.

Mr Boaden said: “This is an extraordinary sum of money.

“The people of Carlisle have a right to ask – ‘What have we got to show for it?’

“The answer is a lot of reports and consultants’ documents and precious little on the ground.

“Public money is being wasted on a grand scale.”

Around £900,000 of the £6.66m was used to buy up property in Rickergate.

Simon Osman, of Save Our Streets, the group formed to fight the Rickergate redevelopment, branded the spending a “scandalous waste”.

He added: “That money could have been spent on other priorities such as south Botchergate, which is crying out for something to be done.”

Edna Croft, chairwoman of the Save Our Lonsdale campaign, believes the cash would have been better spent acquiring the former Lonsdale Cinema in Warwick Road for use as a theatre/arts centre.

She said: “A fraction of the money spent on Renaissance would have bought the Lonsdale for Carlisle.

“We are setting up a trust to raise money to restore it. We just need someone to buy the building. It was valued at around £500,000.”

Renaissance was launched in August 2005 by the then Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott.

It was initially a partnership between the city and county councils but in 2008 control passed to an independent board made up of public and private-sector representatives.

The board’s chairman, Bryan Gray, defended the initiative at a press conference held earlier this month on the fifth anniversary of the floods.

He is equally upbeat in the newly-published Renaissance 2009 annual report.

His foreword says: “Over the last 12 months we have made real progress in bringing forward the delivery of our ambitious agenda for Carlisle.

“The fruits of this will be even more visible in 2010 when projects will progress to the stage of work on the ground.”

Renaissance’s priorities are to establish the University of Cumbria in Viaduct Estate, build on the tourism potential of the city’s heritage, and creating new sites for business along the M6 corridor.

Renaissance has also tabled a bid for Carlisle to become ‘UK City of Culture’ in 2013.

Taken from The News & Star / [Link] / [Back to top]

Carlisle will have theatre within next five years - claim
Last updated at 10:39, Saturday, 16 January 2010

Carlisle will have a theatre within the next five years, according the city’s regeneration chief.

Ian McNichol spoke yesterday after the team leading the 2013 UK Capital City of Culture bid for Carlisle was quizzed by a national selection panel.

On the theatre, Mr McNichol, development director of Carlisle Renaissance, told the News & Star: “We will get one in the next four or five years.

“Everybody wants one, it’s about trying to figure out how to get one.”

A theatre that would be open to the public is included in plans to develop a new University of Cumbria campus at Caldew Riverside for 2014. This will be built whether the city’s culture bid is chosen or not.

Members of the Renaissance team are “confident” the city’s bid will be short-listed after putting Carlisle’s case to the bid panel on Thursday.

“It was a good session,” said Mr McNichol. “We talked to them about why we believe our cultural programme will deliver dramatic benefits and a lasting legacy.

“It has got a good chance – it is not the favourite but it is not the rank outsider.”

The eight-strong panel, chaired by Hollyoaks and Grange Hill creator Phil Redmond and including Cumbria’s director of public health Professor John Ashton, will meet again on February 3.

A shortlist of four cities is expected to be announced by the end of February.

Mr McNichol said even making the shortlist would be an enormous boost for the city’s profile.

“If you are trying to get more people to work, study and visit here then we have to tell them what’s here and what we are up to,” he said.

Carlisle is jockeying for the title along with Barnsley, Hull, Birmingham, Ipswich and the Haven Gateway, Norwich, Chichester, Portsmouth and Southampton, Cornwall, Sheffield, Derry, Southend, Durham and Swansea.

Mr McNichol added: “We are the only bid from the north west and there have been none from Scotland. It is hopeful for us because if you get on the shortlist you need to bid for funders and we will not be competing against anyone else in the region.”

Under the bid tabled by Carlisle Renaissance under the title Carlisle: The Once and Future City, Carlisle would aim to host a festival of light, a banquet, classical and pop concerts, a film festival and a mini-Olympic games if it is chosen.

There are plans too to revive the medieval Great Fair and set up England’s largest open-air ice rink at Carlisle Castle.

The bid is expected to bring in 350,000 additional visitors. They would be expected to spend £10m, funding up to 2,000 jobs in the area.

Taken from The News & Star / [Link] / [Back to top]

A chance to make your voice heard
Published at 14:10, Friday, 15 January 2010

THE aspirations of a city’s population are often assumed – by politicians, economists, planners, entrepreneurs, business leaders and opportunists. They don’t always hold up to scrutiny.

For that reason all vested interests were firmly off the agenda when The Cumberland News commissioned independent researchers to ask people living and working in Carlisle what they thought of their city and what they wanted for its future.

The survey’s findings are fascinating – and in parts, worrying.

It was perhaps to be expected that a majority of Carlisle people would say they wanted a theatre, a bigger and more interesting shopping centre, improved sporting and entertainment amenities and a greater, more visible police presence.

More shocking was that so many respondents said they had little or no interest in who would win Carlisle’s parliamentary seat – 20 per cent of respondents saying they didn’t know which party would win, didn’t care which candidate became MP or wouldn’t vote.

Opinions do, of course, change and as the General Election campaign progresses over coming months, it’s likely views will be won by parties, altered by circumstances or veered away from a sizeable reluctance to engage with national politics.

Because minds change, this research is just the start of a continuing exploration of the views and aspirations of Carlisle’s citizens.

The Cumberland News will commission more surveys over the course of 2010, putting questions relating to key local issues, seeking answers from the very people they affect most – you.

Free of the agendas held by Renaissance, city or county councils, party politicians or big business, the findings can be trusted as a true reflection of local opinion at a particular point in Carlisle’s development.

No survey can claim to be minutely scientific. Ours does claim though to be without bias or vested interest. It might not please local politicians or lobbyists in its entirety – but they’d be foolish to ignore it.

Taken from The News & Star / [Link] / [Back to top]

Five years after Carlisle's devastating floods
Last updated at 13:15, Thursday, 07 January 2010

Those who lived through the great flood of January 2005 will never forget it. Statistics alone cannot do justice to the catastrophe.

Two months’ rainfall – nearly seven inches – fell in 36 hours in the River Eden’s catchment area unleashing a wall of water.

Defences were overtopped flooding 1,925 properties.

The water was 7ft deep in places and took days to subside. The bill for putting right the damage topped £200m.

Some flooded residents were out of their homes for more than a year.

Five years on, what have we to show for all the suffering?

New flood defences for a start. The Environment Agency has almost completed a £38m scheme, which withstood another extreme-weather event in November 2009.

Paul Hendy was project co-ordinator for Communities Reunited, a group set up to help flood victims.

He believes the main legacy of the floods is psychological.

“People continue to be quite traumatised,” he said. “New flood defences haven’t removed the fear of flooding.

“For children who lived through it, Christmas became synonymous with losing all their presents. Every Christmas they have flashbacks.”

Academics agree. St Martin’s College – now the University of Cumbria – produced a report, Living In Fear: Health and Social Impacts of the Floods in Carlisle 2005.

This argued that some flood victims suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition more usually associated with soldiers in Afghanistan.

The report said: “Many are living in constant fear during periods of rain and feel the need to constantly check for flooding by looking out of windows, going to the river to check levels or always looking at weather forecasts.”

A more obvious flood hangover is shoddy building work. In the rush to repair, cowboy tradesmen had a field day.

Mr Hendy said: “People are still living with problems in their homes that they accepted at the time. It’s a reminder of what they went through.”

For Carolynn Travis the problems took nearly five years to solve.

She, her husband and two children moved out for eight months in 2005.

They left their terraced home in Warwick Road again last year while the floors were ripped out for a second time.

Mrs Travis, 48, said: “The builders blocked off the air vents and we got mould spores. We had to move out for six months.”

That followed a list of complaints including faulty door and window fittings and even a bottle of urine discovered behind plasterboard.

Mrs Travis added: “We’ve had umpteen surveyors, builders and loss adjusters tramping through the house.

“There comes a point when it is an invasion of privacy. That gets to me more than anything else.”

John and Penny Mulholland are still waiting for the county council to repair the only road to their house at Warwick Holme near Aglionby.

They were rescued by helicopter in 2005 when the floods washed away a 20-yard stretch of the access road.

Mrs Mulholland, 45, said: “Cumbria highways put down a temporary surface that we were told would be mended.

“We’re still waiting. I’ve made 30 calls in the last three years and have been told it’s ‘in the pipeline’.

“It’s hazardous. It floods and at the moment it’s frozen and the car is banking on the ice.”

It isn’t all doom and gloom, however. Mr Hendy sees positives from 2005 too.

He said: “The insurers and loss adjusters have learned lessons about the problems of poor-quality workmanship.

“They have put in place safeguards to minimise the chances of it happening again in future floods.”

Derwent and Solway Housing Association certainly learned from 2005.

Two of its developments in Keswick were flooded again last November.

But while residents of St Kentigern Close were out for nine months in 2005, they were able to return after three weeks this time.

Those at nearby Victoria Court should be back home later this month.

Robert Porter, director of the association, said: “When we did the remedial work in 2005 we took the damp course 1.2 metres above ground level.

“All the electrics were dropped from the ceiling downwards as opposed to upwards from the floor.

“The secret is to get into properties as quickly as possible after the event and begin the drying-out process.”

Mr Hendy, meanwhile, has passed on his experiences of 2005 to other areas of the country hit by flooding.

He is involved in a three-year project to help flood victims at Dumfries, Stonehaven and Elgin in Scotland.

He said: “The Cumbria community spirit is unique.

“In all the flood recovery I’ve done throughout the UK, I’ve never come across anything like Cumbrian people.

“They get on with it. They grin and bear it. At the end of the day they rally around and help each other.

“I wouldn’t like that community spirit to be lost.”

The lasting legacy of 2005 should be the Carlisle Renaissance regeneration scheme.

Carlisle City and Cumbria County councils saw the floods as an opportunity to reinvent Carlisle for the 21st century.

The then deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, launched Renaissance in a fanfare of publicity in August 2005.

There were promises of £180m in private investment, 1,600 new jobs and an architectural competition to design ‘iconic’ buildings.

Consultants drew up plans for tree-lined plazas, there was talk of knocking down the Civic Centre and the city council began to buy property for redevelopment including Adriano’s restaurant and a house in Warwick Street.

But the dream turned sour. The Save Our Streets group fought a successful campaign to prevent demolition of any homes in Rickergate.

Its secretary, Elizabeth Allnutt, said: “The idea of regeneration after the floods was iffy anyway.

“You can’t impose regeneration from outside. It will work only if you work with the existing community.”

The Northwest Regional Development Agency, which was funding Renaissance, became increasingly twitchy at the lack of progress.

In 2008 there was a complete change of tack.

Control passed to a Renaissance board, made up of business people and public-sector representatives, chaired by Bryan Gray, the then chairman of the Northwest Regional Development Agency.

The board shelved the Rickergate scheme to concentrate on nurturing the University of Cumbria, developing the city’s historic assets to boost tourism and creating employment along the M6 corridor.

Mr Gray was in upbeat mood at a press conference this week.

He said: “This will be the year when we see some of the fruits of all that’s gone on.”

But Renaissance still has its critics. Ms Allnutt said: “We find it incredibly difficult to get information.

“We snap at their heels to push for minutes of their meetings. We are always trying to find out information that is unavailable.”

Michael Boaden, the Labour city councillor hoping to succeed Eric Martlew as Carlisle’s MP, argues Renaissance has been a missed opportunity.

He said: “The Tory leadership [of the city council] spent a fruitless few years harassing the people of Rickergate.

“A successful campaign fought off those proposals and left the council with nothing to show except the ownership of an Italian restaurant.

“It then placed regeneration of the city into the hands of an unelected, unaccountable board. It is very sad that the city, as represented by the council and Carlisle Renaissance, seems to be making such little progress.”

Taken from The News & Star / [Link] / [Back to top]

Carlisle Renaissance boss says 2010 will be year scheme 'takes off'
Last updated at 12:10, Wednesday, 06 January 2010

This will be the year Carlisle Renaissance takes off, says its chairman Bryan Gray.

The initiative was launched to regenerate Carlisle after the 2005 floods, which hit five years ago this week.

Michael Boaden, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Carlisle, used the anniversary to criticise the Renaissance board as “unelected and unaccountable”.

He said: “It is very sad that following the disastrous floods of 2005, with profound effects on the lives of so many, the city as represented by the city council and Carlisle Renaissance seems to be making such little progress.”

But Mr Gray, addressing a press conference at Tullie House yesterday, claimed Renaissance was on course.

He said: “Our vision is very, very clear and is one that people are widely supporting – Carlisle as a leading heritage city with a strong university and a successful city centre.

“What we’ve been seeking to do in 2009 is put the building blocks in place to deliver this.

“This year will be the year when we see some of the fruits of all that’s gone on.”

Mr Gray accepted Renaissance had got off to a bad start with an ill-fated scheme to redevelop Rickergate. This was “no longer a priority”.

He continued: “A lot of the problems such as Rickergate were years ago. We have to put that behind us.”

Renaissance spent £1.2m in 2009, including £322,000 on salaries. Most of its funding comes from the Northwest Regional Development Agency, although the city and county councils also contribute.

Mr Gray said it had made good progress in securing Caldew Riverside for the University of Cumbria.

A deal with Tesco, which will give up land there, should ensure the university has room to grow for the foreseeable future.

A spectacular new Roman Gallery was planned for Tullie House Museum and a revamped tourist information centre for the Old Town Hall.

Schemes to improve Castle Street and Court Square were well advanced and Carlisle was bidding to become UK City of Culture in 2013.

Renaissance was better at listening, Mr Gray added, setting up residents’ panels for feedback and a website to keep people informed.

Roger Liddle, chairman of the county regeneration agency Cumbria Vision, backed the Renaissance strategy – in particular its emphasis on expanding the university.

He said: “You can’t look back to what Carlisle was, an industrial city. You have to look forward.

“At present 40 per cent of kids leave at 18 and never come back. That won’t happen to the same extent.

“There will be lots of good-quality jobs that arise from expansion of the university. It is in the best long-term interests of the people of Carlisle.”

Mr Gray, meanwhile, is confident that the first phase of the new campus will open in 2013-14 despite the university’s financial difficulties.

This first phase is likely to include a theatre and arts centre for the whole city.

He said: “The key thing for us is to get [the new university campus] off the ground.

“It’s a 50-year project and it will go forward at whatever pace it goes at. The key thing is to be able to start.”

Renaissance is a joint initiative of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, Carlisle City and Cumbria County councils.

Its board is made up of business people and public-sector representatives.

It has nine full-time staff including director Ian McNichol, and also funds two posts within the councils.

Taken from The News & Star / [Link] / [Back to top]