At last... a public service report you can trust! - Citizen Smith

REMEMBER the last time the city council tried to 'create' culture on our doorstep? The result was the Millennium pathway, and the upside down trees were, useful only as a metaphor for the council's attempt to 'plant' public artwork on unfertile ground that could never sustain it.

On the face of it, the supposed new 'cultural quarter' on the former brewery site is a more promising venture, in the shadow of the Dukes and Grand theatres.

Throw in a few attractive cafes, a smattering of art galleries and a few more wretched steel and glass monstrosities and hey presto - instant culture!

Unfortunately, what this approach leaves out is the people who actually create the culture, the people who have built up places like the Grand, the Dukes, the Storey Gallery and - the musicians co-op.

Yes, the co-op. The very organisation that could be forced out of existence as developers make their relentless way through the car parks above Kingsway.

The musician's co-op is 'so Lancaster' - it's instantly recognisable as part of what makes this area special, and it exists not as a result of massive grants or the meddling of councillors, it exists because a group of ordinary people who want to make music want it to.

But, unfortunately, grand designs have no place for small, hard-working collectives who just want to enjoy their music and give others the opportunity to do the same.

The only way a truly cultural quarter will emerge is for the council to allow it to grow naturally and stop unsuitable building schemes, fast food takeaways and a waste-land of chain stores from colonising yet another  part of our city.

Developers Chelverton,   the company eager to re-invent what the council has   glamorously dubbed the 'canal corridor North,' have been coming in for some stick from the most unlikely of sources in recent weeks.

Labour, councillors were the biggest supporters of the company's failed plans for the whole of the Kingsway site, and despite unanimous cabinet support for another developer, they dragged the whole affair through yet another interminable review board meeting before finding themselves outvoted.

When Chelverton's latest plan for a new supermarket (and part of the Eastern Relief Road) came through, Laboures leader reacted positively.

It was most surprising, therefore, to see vitriolic criticism of the scheme from his former deputy, none other than Cllr lan Barker, who pointed out (a mere three weeks after the Citizen) that the scheme varied substantially from the local plan.

He is right to raise concerns over Chelverton's flawed 'vision' but why the sudden change of heart over the potential saviours of Kingsway?

So dramatic has Labour's U-turn been that even the normally tame Liberal Democrats have started to question the actions of Barker and co. Strange times, indeed.