Cottam Hall Properties, the developer behind the £80 million site at Cottam Brickworks is to unveil new plans for the scheme, responding to Preston’s emerging Local Plan, at a public consultation event on January 15, 2015. The public consultation will be held at St Margaret’s Church, off Tag Lane, 1A St Margaret’s Close, Ingol. The plans […]

On 29 September, Preston’s Planning Committee threw out the plan to build 164 houses on the golf course, between New Rough Hey, The Avenue and Sheraton Park, after a strong case for rejection had been put by Councillor Pauline Brown. The grounds for rejection were that the Planning Committee believed the development would result in […]

“My speech today is going to be shorter than in the previous two years mainly because you are finally doing what we said back in 2012. “We will hear a lot of blame being dished out today but if you had implemented what we said two years ago the city finances would be over 1 […]

Towns across England will receive £91m to help bring empty homes back into use, Liberal Democrat Communities Minister and Bath MP Don Foster announced yesterday. Over 6,000 disused homes and commercial premises will benefit from the scheme. The funding will be spent on refurbishment in areas where empty properties have commonly led to problems such as squatting, […]

Liberal Democrat Leader on Lancashire County Council, County Councillor Bill Winlow, has today called for an all party coalition to run Lancashire. Following the local elections on Thursday May 2nd, no party  won enough seats to set up an administration. “I have contacted both the Labour and Conservative Party leaders to say that we are […]

The Tory cut in council tax of 2% for Lancashire County Council is not only irresponsible, but extremely foolish. The cut will remove almost £7.5m per year from the county’s budget and that will accumulate year on year so that within the four year life of the next administration there will be almost £30m less […]

“It’s very sad to have to say this, but I believe Preston City Council is not sustainable as an independent authority in the long term. In the ten years I have been a Councillor, the number of employees has reduced by well over half, and we cannot sustain any more cuts  without front line services – like emptying the bins – […]

Development of the grandly titled Fishergate Central Gateway will be carried out with the aid of funding from European Regional Development Fund and will be done in three phases as follows: Phase 1 – 1st March to approx Mid July 2013 (approx 20 weeks) – Work will begin on the junction of Corporation Street and Ringway. The work will extend along […]

At yesterday’s annal Budget Meeting of Lancashire County Council, Cllr Geoff Driver unexpectedly announced a 2% Council Tax cut, thereby reducing the council’s available resources by £7.34m  for 2013-14 and in future years. “Given that we face massive budget cuts in the next four years, amounting to £250m, 28% of resources, this is downright irresponsible” said  Liberal Democrat […]

Liberal Democrats have this week outlined their priorities for Lancashire. At the full Lancashire County Council meeting, Cllr Bill Winlow, Leader of the LibDems at County Hall, outlined the groups alternative budget. In his speech he acknowledged the difficult financial position inherited from the previous Labour administration. He gave credit to the current administration for managing a […]