28
DEBATE CITY STATUS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
HOT IN THE CITY
Preston is celebrating 20 years as a city. Blackburn is bidding to become one of the Queen’s platinum jubilee cities. We joined forces with Downtown in Business at Samlesbury Hall to ask our specially invited panel what impact, if any, city status brings.
PRESENT:
Richard Slater - Lancashire Business View (Chair) Rob Binns - Cotton Court
FM: Cities are where economic growth happens. There’s a buzz about the city, a dynamism.
Downtown is very much based on cities. Hubs are important and the reason why cities work is that they are hubs for an economy. I see Preston and Blackburn as the two hubs for the county. The fact Preston has city status and Blackburn doesn’t, in one sense doesn’t much matter.
Some of the challenges we have in this part of the world are that in east Lancashire not everyone buys into the fact Blackburn is the hub and, equally, in central Lancashire Preston isn’t necessarily seen as the economic driver.
If you’re serious about strategically growing your economy, having a plan and moving forward at a pace, then first thing you’ve got to do is identify where your big advantages are. Greater Manchester has managed to do that over a 25-year period now, utilising that hub city for the benefit of the surrounding area.
Preston has had a number of false starts. It threw a lot into the Tithebarn development plan to transform the whole city and it didn’t happen.
John Chesworth - Harrison Drury Paula Davies - Downtown in Business Martin Kelly - Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Azeem Khan - Gemini Commercial Cleaning
It would have catapulted the place to a different level to where it is today.
But two decades on, if you look at the plans and ambitions for Preston, they are more exciting because on the back of Tithebarn not happening we’ve had to think more innovatively and imaginatively.
What’s often overlooked is the location of Preston and the fantastic advantage it has in terms of its railway station. Its motorway network is absolutely fantastic.
If you look at what the government’s intentions are in terms of the levelling up agenda, it is saying it wants to get civil servants out of Westminster.
Preston should be the first port of call and we should be really banging that drum because of the facilities, the office space that is on its way and the fantastic connectivity.
One of the things that frustrates me about Lancashire as a whole, but Preston in particular, is its lack of ambition and the fact that the first levelling up department decentralisation has happened in Wolverhampton.
Frank McKenna - Downtown in Business Rachel McQueen - Marketing Lancashire Phil Riley - Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Richard Taylor - Taylors Estates
Politicians there had an absolute ambition, a vision, and actually banged the drum for their city.
Sometimes we look at ourselves very parochially here and say, ‘Well, what will this mean to us?’ and the reality is, not a lot really. But city status, if Blackburn gets it, means people who haven’t looked before, will take a look. It is worth having it for that, if for no other reason.
JC: Preston has been suffering from a Tithebarn hangover but if it had happened, we’d be a retail- led city centre. If you look at what’s happening in that sector now, you could ask if we dodged a bullet there because we’re now looking at what we need in the city centre and we’re clear that we need to increase the cultural offering, the food and beverage offering. We probably need to shrink retail to make it more effective.
We’ve got a really successful city living strategy, which has brought a lot of energy back and plans now are focused on Grade A office space around the Station Quarter and the cultural investment that’s going into the Harris Quarter. Again, it’s going to shape that city and move it away from retail.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
