Tupele is right

The Lancashire Evening Post is reporting that Tupele Dorgu has blasted Preston as 'grim' over twitter. The boss of the local 'Business Improvement District' has criticised her for comparing Preston to London. However, Tupele is not comparing Preston with London, she is comparing Preston with how it was 15 years ago.

It's obvious to anyone who looks with unbiased eyes that the last 15 years have been ones where Preston has remained stagnant, if not gone backward. This period coincides with the existence of the Vision Board, which focussed Preston's development agenda onto wildly impractical schemes, like the Ribble Barrage, the Winckley Square massacre and most damaging of all, the Tithebarn scheme, which has mired the city in developer's blight for the last decade. The consequence has been a town centre lined with empty shop fronts, a total lack of any confidence or new investment.

There are a few exceptions, such as DukPond, The Mystery Tea House and the Continental, but these are small, local businesses who have succeeded despite, rather than because of council policy, businesses that have focussed on local needs, and strived to offer something interesting, quality and different. They are not the corporate megamonopolies that focus solely on dull conformity and profit, that the council has been courting unsuccessfully in the overblown strategy it was persuaded in when being awarded 'city status' went to their heads.

Preston City Council, please learn from your mistakes! Focus on what works for our city - local democratic involvement, small scale organic development that builds on our strengths and our real resources, otherwise we'll be trapped in 15 more years of miserable decline.