Riverworks Snubbed By Lottery

This report, on the failure of Preston City Council's bid to get money from the National Lottery to fund a feasibility study into their Riverworks Proposals, was published in yesterday's 'Lancashire Evening Post'.



Readers of the 'Save The Ribble' blog already learned about this news from this report on 16th June.

Lots of council officer time and council tax payers money was spent preparing this failed bid. The bid failed because the council had failed to consult local people in the design of these ideas, and because local people found so much to object to in the Riverworks proposals - the Ribble barrage that would do terrible damage to an internationally protected environment and the terrible housing proposals - to build over 4000 houses and businesses on 3 different sets of football pitches - at Penwortham Holme, Vernons and Frenchwood, and over local people's allotments and on land that is both beautiful green belt and in the Ribble flood plain.

Local people are angry at the devious language of the council - suggesting that building over our sports fields and allotments somehow 'expands our range of leisure options'.

We hope this setback for the council will make our democratically elected representatives start asking some searching questions about Riverworks - this project has been over-hyped and under-scrutinised.

Council Officers and Leaders seem determined to press ahead with these proposals despite the objections of local people and the fact that the lottery would not touch them with a bargepole - we have argued that these proposals are being driven by the potential profits of developers, rather than the wishes or needs of local people.