Extensionandrevamp oflibraryconsidered
CLEATON Moor Library could be extended and redeveloped if planning applications are agreed by councillors next week. Members of Cumberland Council’s planning committee will consider an application for listed building consent as well as the full planning application. Both are recommended for approval subject to conditions.
A NEW study of the UK’s centralised bureaucracy will paint a familiar picture to Northern Agenda readers: English cities being left behind their European counterparts “not because of a lack of ambition from local leaders, but because those leaders are forced to go cap in hand to Westminster for every penny and every planning permission for major infrastructure projects.”
But this is not grumble from a Northern mayor, or one of the think tanks such as IPPR North or Centre for Cities, which have been making this case for years.
Instead, it comes from Britain Remade – a right-of-centre think tank which has previously argued for more nuclear power, cheaper energy and reducing environmental levies.
The group highlights the lack of a mass public transit system in Leeds, saying comparable cities in Europe have much better systems.
It highlights Leeds’ French twin city Lille, which carries 108m people a year and its other twin, Dortmund in Germany, which operates 47 miles of track serving 122 stations.
Even better connected places such as
A transport initiative proposed by West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin was blocked by Whitehall
Manchester fare badly when compared to European twins, with its German twin city Chemnitz having a denser public transport system despite being a much smaller place, Britain Remade says.
The group wants the Government to give all 14 directly elected mayors the power to approve transport infrastructure projects without requiring Whitehall sign-off, to access infrastructure financing on competitive terms and to be able to deliver projects without repeated Treasury reviews.
“This is how successful countries do it,” it says.
Sam Richards, CEO of Britain Remade, said: “Directly elected mayors understand their regions far better than distant officials in Whitehall ever can.
“They see the bottlenecks, the missed opportunities and the projects that would genuinely unlock growth.
“Yet, despite this, they are still forced to go cap in hand to Westminster, navigating delays and bureaucracy just to deliver basic infrastructure.
“This over-centralisation is a major reason Britain struggles to build.
“It stifles ambition, slows progress and leaves major cities like Leeds – still the largest in Western Europe without a mass transit system – lagging behind.”
To rather prove Britain Remade’s point, The House magazine has obtained documents which show that West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin’s attempts to start work on a tram network before her next re-election campaign were blocked after a Whitehall review concluded that deadline carried a high risk of wasted taxpayers’ cash.
The review warned that the mass transit scheme was being driven by a “political agenda rather than a recognised programmatic approach” and that “the risk of nugatory spend is high.”