According to a website called Isite

There will  soon be a new, and by the looks of it totally useless, new development in Preston. This is going to be  a zero carbon visitors center at the newly established Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Nature Reserve in Preston. This is meant to turn a former quarry site into a major tourist attraction.

This is going to be called  “A Floating World” and is going to consist of zero-carbon floating buildings built on an island of floating pontoons.

According to the website: “The project is zero-carbon in both use and production, with materials of low embodied energy – thatch, willow, timber, with off-site prefabrication and on-site energy generation and waste treatment.”

Northwest Regional Development Agency claims that this site will become a tourist attraction because of its rich natural assets and impressive biodiversity.

The agency claims that “The chosen design will not only create an inspirational open space for the local community to enjoy but will also enhance a key gateway into Lancashire and attract further investment into the area.”

While the idea is a fairly good one,  a sort of attempt to turn Preston in a tourist attraction, what is interesting is that no one at all appears to have blogged about this. This shows the total lack of interest in the project by the online community in Preston.

A 2^nd year journalism student at Uclan has unearthed what sound like interesting regeneration plans for Preston. Apparently there is plan to redevelop Preston’s old waterways. This £800 million pound redevelopment is backed the Canal Trust, Preston council and British Waterways and is predicted to be completed as soon as 2012.

The plan would expand the canal from Shelley Road, in Ashton, under Fylde Road to a new marina within the Maudland area, next to the Maudland building of the University of Central Lancashire where a new Marina would be built.

 According to the student the plan would see river taxis’ and boats floating above pedestrians in Preston city centre. They also say that:

 “Such unique concepts such as floating boats or water taxis and buses would defiantly push Preston to the forefront within the Lancashire region, as well as help put the city on the map as an upcoming area in England as a whole. That in itself would be a great boost for the local economy just from a tourism and attraction standpoint.”

This is plan does sound like an interesting one but still fails to solve the fundamental problems of Preston, turning the city into a massive tourist attraction is hardly a long term solution for a city which was gutted by the departure of heavy industry to the developing world. How the canal and the marina, which will most likely prove to be catastrophically expensive, are going to translate into economic regeneration are questions which the blogger doesn’t attempt to answer. A look at the internet showed that no one else had any opinion of this at all.

This make the project sound like one of several of Preston’s City council’s high flown regeneration schemes which no one in Preston is the least bit interested in.  They seem much more interested in blogging about Preston’s crime and assume that the council are out to waste their hard earned tax money.

Kaleigh, a journalism at student at ulcan comments on the large wages that Lancashire County Council receive. Apparently  six council executives earn more than £100,000 a year, with the chief executive earning £188,677 in 2006/7.

 She also says:

Council tax keeps rising. I had a quick look at the amounts in Preston, and for most areas in band A you have to pay £1009.89 a year in 2008/9. In 2007/8 it was £974.78. This is a massive increase, especially for lower income homes. And the council use this money to give free parking permits and to pay executives over £100,000 a year salaries? This is ridiculous.She contrasts this by commenting on the perceived levels of crime in Lancashire. She comments:
Surely the council should be spending the money they get from their residents on making the area they live safer instead of overpaying fat cat executives?

Her comments about crime levels rising are not entirely unjustified. According to the Lancashire County crime has risen  2,318 in 2001 to 3,419 in 2007.

This supports the general trend that people in Preston are worried about crime levels and assume the council is misspending money. This contrasts  with tragically with the lack of interest people have in regeneration in Preston

A recent blog , describes in glowing an enthusiastic terms Liverpool’s recent regeneration. The blog is based on an article from the wall street journal and  describes the ideal of what a regenerated northern city should be like. The title of  European capital culture has transformed the city into a “Cluster of waterfront museums and galleries like the Tate Liverpool, as well as the hum of construction projects.” The article describes the Bluecoat Gallery and the Foundation for Creative Art and Technology. One of the creators describes how:

“It’s an edgy city that’s got character, and artists are attracted to that edginess,”

The article describes how: “Encouraged by European Union funding and local initiatives, commercial development has been on the rise in the region. Growth industries include car manufacturing, biotech and digital technology (Sony has a videogame-development studio in Liverpool).”

The article contains a description of the city as :

“There’s a digital-art gallery where there was once an old tea warehouse, designer-driven hotels and restaurants are opening and, in the fall, the city will host the MTV Europe Music Awards”.

So according to the article the city has reinvented itself as a new, edgy, exciting city with a  focus on art galleries, designer shopping and restaurants and new technology.

This idea of regeneration through culture is a convincing one. The same article describes how:

In 1990, during Glasgow’s stint as the EU’s culture capital, the Royal Concert Hall opened and overall theater attendance jumped more than 40%. Today, the city is filled with artsy bars, hip hotels and critically lauded restaurants.

These core ideas, new, trendy bars, cultural activities, new technology and high class shops are things which seem, to me at least perhaps the way of defining whether not a city has been regenerated. These  things  are obviously lacking in Preston.

Hours of looking at blogs about Preston seem to show that the residents of Preston at see the city as crime ridden and unpleasant. Sadly though this fails to translate itself into regeneration.

Although the website is meant as a joke,the website Chav Towns gives in interesting insight into how the people who live here view Preston. on  the animosity that the bloggers on it feel is far to bitter for it simply be meant in good fun. The first users posts a comment which says:

But what’s this? Glancing through my Chav-O-Scope I spy the unmistakable stink signatures of myriad Chav and Chavettes, greasing their way along this North West town’s highways and byways and as the hours of the day pass into night the glow given off by their chunky gold jewellery begins to interfere with the delicate instruments aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. Houston, we have a problem, a Chav problem, and it appears to be getting worse. It’s too late, the needle of my Chavometer is nudging off the scale. The life force beacons of the ordinary citizens of this place are dimming, dimming, dimming . . .We’re. All. Doomed.”

 Another user then adds:

I’m from Preston, and I’m surprised that no-one has mentioned Avenham in any of these posts yet.It’s got to be the number one chavviest area of the city, yet it houses probably the richest people in Preston.

The houses and flats on Winckley Square in Avenham are a blend of horrendously expensive historic buildings and new studio apartments and many of the city’s law and civic offices are based around there, which seems strange when you see what lives next door..

The chav-scum part has to be 99% council or slumlord-owned accomodation, and most of the remaining towerblocks in Preston are there. They’ve just been given a facelift, so they don’t look quite so festering anymore, but they’re still dens of chavviness.

 Nights in Avenham are times not to walk out alone, or to walk with great care.. Pissed up burberry muppets lurk around the entrance to every block, swilling plastic bottles of White Lightning from the neigbourhood newsie/offie, often greeting you with cries of “gizza fag, cha!” or, if there are a few of them “Oi! Nobhead! I’m talkin’ to ya, innit!”

One of the few other blogs which I can find which describes life in Preston is one in which a woman complains about people listening to music on thier mobile phones on the bus but says that she is too fightened to talk to them to ask them to turn it off. 

 This fits in with the earlier discussion I reported on about Winkley square, whenever people blog about their lives in Preston they mention crime and petty vandalism.  There seems to be no mention of developing high tech industries or an artistic community.  The only name that is mentioned is the PAD gallery. A visit to the gallery however, which I was reviewing of the course newspaper revealed it to be an art shop with a exhibition room for local artists.The opening hours of the shop/gallery are 10-5  Weds – Friday   and 12pm-4pm  on Saturday. To describe this an artistic venue is slightly exaggerated.

What is interesting is that having seen the blog about liverpool I now have a descritption of what a regenerated city should be like.

Dermot Finch, of Centre for Cities writes on his blog at the end of march that new government proposals  will make regional development authorities  delegate more economic development functions to local authorities and sub-regions. He says that this will create a stronger role for local authorities in economic development and encourage more collaboration by local authorities across economic areas and economic development decision-making at a sub-regional level.

He says that this will be created by new legislation in the next Parliamentary session which  to formalise RDAs’ (regional development authorities)  new  role.

He adds:

 While all these changes are debated and legislated, it’s vital that the momentum is maintained on economic development. RDAs will quickly need to get to grips with the planning regime, more local authorities will need to play a front-line role in promoting new job creation, and sub-regions will need to prioritise investment decisions – all in an increasingly difficult economic climate.

So, while the SNR proposals look good, let’s keep our eye on the real economy.

In lay mens terms this seems to mean that  regional development authorities are to give more power to local authorities to create jobs. What is typical about this blog, as with the majority on the web, is that he doesn’t say what jobs should be created. As we all know it is very easy to talk in theory about creating jobs but much more difficult to come up with something more substantial than the retail led development which seems to dominate the idea of northern generation. As he points out the looming recession makes the idea of a retail led development of Preston look much less encouraging,

An earlier blog by the same user, highlights the affect that poor transport is having on cities in Lancashire . This outlines how in the south towns around London benefit from the wealth of city but the poor transport links in Lancashire stop that from happening. Even having lived in Lancashire for a short time this is apparent to me. The transport is so poor between Preston and Manchester or say Blackburn or Manchester that it makes it impossible to commute from one to the other

 As he says: We need to focus on helping these cities to grow so they can act as economic hubs driving growth across the north.

Another blog, by a blogger called Rav is far more pessimistic about the future of Northern Regeneration. He quotes from a recent report by policy exchange.

He says ; “Ultimately, the report argues, to try to artificially kickstart the economies of Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds and other depressed northern towns is to miss the point. The cities are poor for a serious economic reason. Not just the collapse of manufacturing, which could theoretically be replaced by other industries. Quite simply, they’re in the wrong place. Northern towns developed in most cases because of their access to the sea, through harbours, rivers and canals, which made them ideally placed for international trade when most goods were carried by sea. Now that goods are increasingly carried by road, and trade is more than ever with continental Europe, it’s the South that reaps the benefits.”

He talks about how the population pf the Northern will inevitable decline. He quotes the report as saying:

“Markets made these cities large, the report seems to suggest, and markets must be allowed to shrink them again.”

He concludes: As people become ever more mobile, it’s possible cities might grow and shrink in response to economic trends faster than ever before. This could mean a revolution in building, with cheap temporary buildings replacing grand civic projects. The implications of this for the quality of the built are environment are, obviously, pretty unpleasant. But it might be better than the alternative: the endless, desperate struggle to artificially inflate economies; the vast swathes of leftover and abandoned buildings, built to last generations but no longer needed.”

This seems to be an unusually bleak assessment of the North, especially as the emerging British economy, whatever form it takes, is unlikely to depend on where the cities are.  It is based on the assumption that the Market should be allowed to dictate how the country behaves, which is a questionable assumption to take for granted

Looking at the online posts about the regeneration of Preston people seem to have a generally pessimistic attitude and assume that it and will just gentrify the areas will not answer people basic needs.

Two of the most recent projects to regenerate Preston are the transformation of Winckley Square and the proposed regeneration of church Street. The Newest phase of the development of Preston is the renovation of Winckley square.The Lancashire Evening Post describes how:

“Winckley Square, once home to the town’s richest residents, is to get a makeover costing up to £3m.A 64-jet water fountain – which doubles as a stage when turned off – will be the centrepiece of the redeveloped square, along with granite walkways, fibre optic lighting, sculptures and metal artwork.”

Various people on The Preston Lancashire forum have commented on this.

One  user Accura, says:“The square needs more natural light, not artificial light.
I hope they put something in that will better address the ongoing litter problem!”

 Another user Riversider agrees:

“Very good point Accura. The place needs people employed to look after it, which would be much cheaper than spending £3m on gimmicks.Preston’s leaders are continuing to act like the African and American Natives, who would sell their land to the first colonialists in return for anything that glittered and sparkled.”

 After a discussion between the two they agree that the park need more wardens but also it’s the fault of people who litter. Riverisder comments:“The money available for maintenance, and even lighting, is drying up rapidly – so while the council pumps money into Winckley Square they are abandoning the rest of Preston’s open spaces to vandals and litter.Seems likely to me that unless the Council change their policies on maintenance, we will find that not long after pumping all this capital into Winckley Square, it turns back into the neglected space it is now, just like the other parks and play areas in Preston.”

 Interestingly the posts refer to articles which appeared in the Lancashire Evening Post.This shows the importance of traditional media in online forums.

There seems to be an assumption that people will undo any beautification of an area. What could have been a proper discussion about how whether the money could be spent more efficiently or if that was too much money to spend on a park and if the park was indeed just a distraction from Preston’s deeper problems becomes diverted into negative feelings about the people who live in Preston.

This underlying assumption that the council will automatically think only of themselves and provide a kind of yuppie regeneration is reflected in the comments about another regeneration scheme, the proposed development on church street.

 The company doing the development, simply describes it as:A redevelopment project awarded by Preston Council to the joint venture team Bluemantle. A city centre redevelopment project comprising of office, residential, restaurant, hotel, library, business centre and new city square.  The forum poster  riversider assumes that this will involve knocking down Empire House.

Although this is not mentioned at all in the development plans users of the forum automatically assume: “This big development is on the cards, and if they go ahead would involve rehousing everyone currently living in Empire House.Has anyone who lives in Empire House been asked their opinion about this?But of course they are only housing association residents, with no right to be consulted about anything that affects their lives. Leave the decisions to those who know best…”

 He adds in a later post:“I’m appalled by the attitude of the councillors and developers that you support so avidly, who make decisions that will change peoples’ lives, without consulting them.” Another user, JohnR  highlights that this not a proposal, an idea or a plan, but “a redevelopment project awarded by pcc”.

  The implication is that people have not been consulted about this and it will involve them being evicted. With the kind of negativity is it any wonder that regeneration is a slow a painful process?

What is even more depressing about this knee jerk reaction is that no one has any suggestions on how redevelopment could take place and no one says what changes they would like to see in Preston. There is also a noticeable lack of blogs which deal with ideas for regeneration.

This gives the impression that people find it much easier to sit back and criticize than to think of ways to improve their city.

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