Lancaster anti-supermarket protest camp

New protest camp goes up in Lancaster with local residents in support - nobody wants a supermarket with a huge parking here!
Pictures and press release:

Growing Camp

Yurtiness

Noncaster

Pulling tight

Banging the same old drum - will they ever listen?

Legal Notice: Section 6 - Criminal Law Act 1977

Tes- is a no co!

What did you think?

Enough is enough is enough is enough!

Supermarkets and climate change - now there is a connection!

New road sign

From a distance

No to Tesco!

The last green field...

A site for a supermarket?

Green grass

More green

Talking to the media

Rally in front of Town Hall, Oct. 9

Join in!

News Release
From: Lancaster Citizens' Alliance

For immediate release

Mon 8 October 2007

Angry residents occupy proposed supermarket site

This morning Lancaster residents moved on to council owned land in Scotforth -
the site of a proposed supermarket, rumoured to be Tesco's. Locals are shocked
by secret moves in the Council's Cabinet to sell off land at Lawson Bridge, off
the A6. Their message: they will not allow the council to sell off their town
for what they call "dodgy development".

Says local resident Deirdre Mason: "The council may love the idea of Tesco's,
Centros Miller and the Bailrigg Science Park, but local residents are concerned
about the threat to local businesses and the unique character of the city!
These developments will be the death of Lancaster. Time to say ENOUGH! to all
these sordid schemes. Let's send a clear message to all these developers: they
are not welcome in our town."

The occupation will last for 24 hours and will be followed by a protest outside
the Cabinet meeting tomorrow (Tuesday 9th Oct) at Lancaster Town Hall from
9.30am onwards.

Residents are concerned about the way the Council is selling off Lancaster
piecemeal, leading to a town crippled by gridlock, and having only "clone town"
shops that are to be found in any high street in the country. "The council is
blinkered when it comes to recognising the historical value of our town, the
vibrancy and high quality of the local traders." says Stephen Dickinson of
Scotforth. "They sold off our market - it's now half dead. Now they want to see
off the rest of the town centre with Centros Miller's proposed monstrosity and
this mega supermarket in Scotforth. The time has come to say 'Enough!'. It's
time for our councillors to listen to us!"

-ENDS-

For further information please contact Deirdre Mason at the protest camp on:
07798 745613

Photo opportunities:
Mon 1pm at the protest camp, Lawsons Bridge, Scotforth Road, Lancaster
Tuesday 10am at Lancaster Town Hall

Notes for the Editor:
1 The land threatened by supermarket development and currently under occupation
is near Lawson's Bridge, between the railway line and the A6 (Scotforth Road).
Lancaster City Council owns about 5.5acres there, immediately to the south of
Ray's Drive.

2 The land is currently rented to a farmer for use as pasture. It is also well
used by Scotforth residents for dog-walking and other kinds of recreation, and
there is a community woodland area at the northern end which is threatened by
the development.

3 Lancaster Council Cabinet will be discussing the proposed sale in their
Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, 9th October. The meeting takes place at Lancaster
Town Hall at 10am.

Enough (is enough)!

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

Good luck

09.10.2007 16:42

Well done Lancaster!

Centros Miller are the guest speakers at the Royal Town Planning Institute conference tomorrow.

http://www.cronertraining.co.uk/rtpi/event.php?product=285&type=public

The Knights of Saint Edmund

Nice work

09.10.2007 18:17

Great to see your campaign over there.

We're fighting off a Tesco down here in Cambridge. Looking around the internet, the anti-Tesco thing really feels like a national campaign.

Check out

http://www.tescopoly.org/ for a load of useful info.

Good luck!!

Rich
Homepage: http://www.nomillroadtesco.org/

The fight carries on (and we will win!)

09.10.2007 19:21

At this morning's Cabinet meeting of Lancaster City Council councillors voted 8-2 to go ahead with starting the process of flogging the land for a supermarket. This despite an overwhelming display of public outrage. Hundreds of people wrote to the Cabinet Councillors over the week. Scotforth Parish Council deciding unanimously to oppose the supermarket in an emergency meeting last night night and making a presentation to the Cabinet this morning. Dozens of residents camping out in the threatened field. A well attended rally this morning. All this happened in the space of five days - since we found out about the proposed decision.

Cabinet Councillors this morning had the guts to refuse even to consult people prior to the sale.
The Conservative leader of the Council, Cllr Roger Mace said "we've had lots
of emails so there has been a consultation already". At this point several members of the public could no longer contain their anger - shouting "that was us contacting you, not you consulting us" and storming out.

Lib Dem Councillor for Scotforth East (which borders onto Lawson's Bridge)
John Gilbert said that "starting to market the land will allow consultation
to take place" and "the public can consult all they want" (sic).

This ridicules any pretense of a democratic system (with the notable exception of our Green Councillors who blew the whistle on the issue and joined in with the protest).

However we are only at the start of this process and already hundreds of people are furious about the plans and determined to resist them every step of the way. We have already fought off two planning applications for this site and we shall do so again.

In the meantime, maybe we all need to reconsider the way we shop - kick the habit and stop shopping at Tesco/Asda/Sainsbury's/etc. Get to know your local shop keepers, support independent small shops, set up food co-ops, before it is too late and they as well as your green fields are gone forever. These supermarket giants are riding rough-shod over communities and the environment everywhere.

To find out more about these issues visit:

http://www.tescopoly.org/

Oh, by the way, we've not forgotten about the monstrous Centros Miller plans for our city centre either. We're just as determined to see them off too! More info here:

http://www.itsourcity.org.uk/

ENOUGH Is ENOUGH!

Furious of Lancaster

Let us help!

09.10.2007 19:52

We strongly oppose these plans for developing this site to build a supermarket, how can we show our support and practically do something about this issue? The first time we heard about this was on Radio Lancashire this evening!

Wilkinson

Tidyness

13.10.2007 17:31

Fair enough, you want to stop the building of a supermarket chain, but as a lifelong resident of a rural Lancaster community, could you please clear up the mess you have made, including but not exclusive of the desecration of the city's welcome sign. To see such graffiti even in such a context makes my stomach turn as a citizen of this city and my family for many generations i am sure if the people responsible for this were as patriotic as my own family would not have left the area in such a mess, or have left up degrading signs of my cities true roots !

Long live Lancaster and it's surrounding greenery.

Anthony Thomson

Wilkinson- get in touch

17.10.2007 07:49

These are fantastic comments. It's great that people around the country are standing up for themselves against the mega-store monsters.

Wilkinson- It's great you want to get involved and help but I don't know how to contact you. Drop me an email at

smileitsjane@hotmail.com and I'll tell you where we go from here.

Thanks,
Jane (Scotforth West Green Councillor)

Jane Fletcher
mail e-mail: smileitsjane@hotmail.com

apologies...

17.10.2007 16:56

...to anthony. the feld was left spotless, signs were left up, just as signs exist everywhere, polluting our minds and advertising more useless rubbish. the welcome sign was not descecrated, there was a sticker under the 'NO' so that it could be removed....

camper