Parking fears raised over Lancaster’s Canal Quarter housing plans

The Canal Quarter project aims to regenerate the east side of the city centre in a corridor near the Lancaster Canal over 10 years.

A new masterplan was agreed this summer and the city council is currently working with architecture and planning consultancies on the project, which could see mixed development including new homes, cultural and leisure amenities, public spaces and the protection of historic buildings.

However, at the latest full meeting of Lancaster City Council, Coun Roger Cleet asked about the potential loss of two car parks in St Leonard’s Gate, which have almost 200 spaces in total, on the site, and the impact this would have on visitors.

He said: “I see a contract has been awarded to Eric Wright Construction for £30m to build 139 affordable homes, which works out at a not-affordable £200,000 each, which will be called Coopers Field.

"Taking into consideration that the lower car park has 63 spaces and the upper car park has 125 spaces, where do you expect shoppers and theatre-goers to park?”

Coun Nick Wilkinson said: “There seems to be a bit of confusion around the award of the contract and the costs of the scheme, which have not yet been finalised.

"The ground works element of the contract was let to Eric Wright Construction using a framework agreement which allows for the council to use Eric Wright for works up to the value of £30m.

“Eric Wright is currently only undertaking investigatory work on the site to help inform the design work.”

Coun Wilkinson added that work has been completed on a draft parking strategy for Lancaster and, as a part of the masterplan approvals, it was agreed that this work would be developed further and completed by the end of January.

“It is also important to note that as a part of each project taken forward within the Canal Quarter programme a transport assessment would be required as a part of the planning process,” he said.

"This would assess any impact the project has on the local transport system and identify what measures are to be put into place to mitigate issues.”