Archive for September, 2009

PRESTON NEEDS SOME ATTITUDE!

Friday, September 25th, 2009

A recently published report, commissioned by the Northwest Regional Development Agency to investigate Preston’s future economic potential, has highlighted that Preston has been treading water for years, and has failed to take advantage of the last decade of economic prosperity.

The 188 page dossier, compiled by consultants GVA Grimley, exposes weak civic leadership as a major problem and describes Preston as the North West’s ‘best kept secret’; not helped by ‘an incoherent marketing strategy’.

The report goes on to highlight the still significant opportunities available to the UK’s newest city, with the Tithebarn development seen as a central plank to Preston’s regeneration and renewal.

The Economic Potential for Preston paper also suggests that stronger leadership and more effective promotional campaigning would have seen the city on a par with Liverpool.

I welcome this no-punches-pulled assessment, not least because it vindicates many of the comments that Downtown Preston has made during the past two years.

If Preston is to take advantage of the potential it undoubtedly has it needs an injection of that thing Liverpool has in abundance – attitude!

For too long the city has allowed its Red Rose neighbours to dictate the pace of change (slow), manipulate agenda’s and ignore the strategic sense of placing Preston at the heart of a Lancashire city-region.

There also seems to be an unhealthy scepticism whereby, for Prestonians, the glass is always half empty. Almost any initiative is met with disapproval and complaint; most recently the excellent pop concert event was pilloried by many in the community, rather than welcomed.

Attitude is about ‘can do’ and that is what Preston must be about from now on in.

It also means being tough on occasion, and the stance taken by the new leader of Lancashire County Council, Geoff Driver, who, it has been suggested, is threatening to withhold cash from Fylde coast local authorities unless they drop their objections to the Tithebarn project, is a step in the right direction.

The appointment of Eliot Lewis-Ward as chief executive of Preston Vision is also good news for the city.

As for marketing Preston, well almost anything will be seen as an improvement. But, free of charge, how about this for a strap line? Preston – the business friendly city with ATTITUDE!

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CALL IN DECISION NO SURPRISE

Friday, September 18th, 2009

The Governments announcement that it is to call in the planning application for the £700 million redevelopment of Preston city centre is disappointing, but should be of little surprise to anybody.

Even before the very aggressive opposition emerged from neighbouring local authorities, it was always the case that a project the scale of the Tithebarn scheme would end up at a public inquiry.

It is, therefore, a little concerning to hear Preston’s civic leaders express the view that the preferred developers, Lend Lease and Grosvenor, may now walk away from the development.

It would certainly be disingenuous of them to do so, on the basis of this latest news. Developers with the knowledge and experience of these international companies would have, or should have, budgeted for a public inquiry right at the outset of this process. If they walk now, they will be demonstrating a disloyalty and betrayal towards Preston that would be totally unforgivable.

Those of us who support Tithebarn now need to build a strategy alongside the developers to convince the planning inspectors that the case for the initiative is strong, and indeed will offer hope and economic benefit not just to our city, but to the rest of Lancashire too.

MUSEUM LATEST
Downtown is working hard alongside the Lancashire Evening Post, to keep the National Football Museum in Preston. A petition has received the backing of well over 1,000 people thus far, and a number of luminaries, including Sir Bobby Charlton, have supported the call for the attraction to remain here.

DPIB and the LEP are now planning to call a meeting of leading decision makers, local, regional and national, to discuss some of the issues that will affect the outcome of this debate, and we hope to bring you further details of this initiative next week.

Meanwhile, it is important that we are not drawn into a battle with Manchester city and its leadership. The council Leader, Sir Richard Leece, made it clear in his recent blog, that Manchester were approached for help and have not been predatory in any way regarding this issue.

I believe that whatever the outcome, Manchester will form part of the solution to this problem, and certainly its involvement means it far less likely that the facility will be stolen by London.

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SAVE OUR MUSEUM

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

The news that the national football museum, situated at Deepdale, is considering a move to pastures new is disappointing, but can be of little surprise to anyone.

The facility has relied heavily on public subsidy since its launch in 2001, with the Northwest Development Agency, in particular, providing the necessary resource to keep the museum afloat.

Anyone who has visited the museum cannot help but be impressed with the way in which it has presented the history and tradition of the beautiful game to its estimated 100,000 annual visitors. However, has it done enough to maximise its potential, engage with the local business community and, most importantly, provide an offering that is attractive to the younger generation.

For those of my generation and older the football museum is full of memories and memorabilia that take us back to a golden age never to be seen again. To kids and twentysomethings, it is what it says on the tin. A museum- and a pretty boring one at that.

Where is the opportunity to interact; to participate? Computer games, penalty shoot out competitions, the chance to meet today’s soccer stars. And, from a money spinning perspective, where are the merchandise sales?

The museum has missed a trick in failing to recognise the need to modernise and that lesson needs to be learnt if we are successful in the campaign to keep the facility in our city.

Nevertheless, there are good arguments to support our campaign.

I am told that to move the facility a cost of between £6 and £8 million will be incurred. It is also the case that much of the archive would have to remain in Preston, come what may.

From a social inclusion aspect, too, Deepdale represents the type of area that NEEDS to have this kind of attraction. And from a regional perspective, isn’t there a need to have a balance of offerings across the North West? Surely it is unhealthy to house everything in Manchester and Liverpool.

It is true, too, that the lack of support from the professional football organisations is nothing short of a disgrace. For the FA, the Premiership and the Football League to turn their backs on a venue that provides the community with the opportunity of witnessing and celebrating the games rich tradition and superb heritage tells us a lot about the folk who run our national sport today.

For the monthly salary of an average Premiership player, the museum could be saved. It is the football authorities; not the public sector, nor the private sector of Lancashire, who need to cough up. It’s the cash rich soccer industry, which needs to demonstrate that it can still identify the value, as well as the cost, of something.

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TWO CHEERS FOR RAIL LINK NEWS

Friday, September 4th, 2009

There is no doubt it is great news that if and when Network Rail finds the £34 billion for its new high-speed rail link, Preston will be on the mainline.

It would be churlish not to welcome such a major investment and improvement on our doorstep and I certainly do welcome it.

But, like many commentators after last week’s announcement, I do have concerns about it especially if it comes at the expense of better connectivity between cities across the North – Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, etc.

In this country we seem to have this rather unhealthy obsession with the South East and more specifically London, in as much as this rail link and so many other similar projects, seem to be able enabling ‘us’ to travel quicker to ‘them.’

Now anyone who knows me will know I am North West through and through, so perhaps I do speak with a degree of bias on this point, but I believe we need to reverse that psychology.

This high-speed rail link should be seen as much about increasing traffic from London to the North, ‘them’ coming to ‘us’, if you will.

Potentially we have a great opportunity to offer equal quality service provision in so many sectors, often at a more competitive price; it is certainly a lot cheaper to set up in business on Preston docks than it is on the side of the River Thames.

And, if this new rail link comes off, people from London will be able to get to Preston in an hour and 13 minutes which is probably quicker than they can get to their own offices in London today, so it is not so fanciful to believe Londoners could commute to work in Preston in the future.

The one other point I was pleased to read about in the Lancashire Evening Post last week is that the rail link would bring about a new train station for the city, close to our wonderful motorway connections.

Preston railway station is perfectly located at the heart of the city centre and obviously architecturally very good looking, but it is in need of a real facelift.

If we are going to attract greater numbers of potential investors and customers from London, these facilities and the immediate city centre around the station needs a real investment to make it a proper gateway.

But that’s one for the future.

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