Eden Project Morecambe 'still a viable scheme', says new report
PLUS: Police investigation into death at HMP Lancaster Farms continues AND what's going on at Lancashire County Council
Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.
We have been focused on happenings at County Hall for much of May - we hope understandably given the scale of change there due to Reform UK’s landslide victory - but today’s edition has a very North Lancashire focus.
We stop first at the transformational Eden Project Morecambe for an update on what’s happening there before pitching over to HMP Lancaster Farms for the latest on an investigation that saw the arrest of a prison officer.
And then finally - the new county councillors for Lancashire have been popping up on the LCC website, but the usual register of interests looks a bit different. We ask why when politicians often express the need for transparency…
New report tells councillors that Eden Project Morecambe is on track
By Robbie Macdonald
The Eden Project in Morecambe is ‘still a viable scheme’ and work is progressing on design details, Lancaster city councillors have been told in a new report.
It comes as Eden appointed a Morecambe project director with the next Eden consultation due at Morecambe Football Club. Previous Eden events have been held at Morecambe Winter Gardens.
The update comes as Lancaster City Council’s budget and performance panel is due to assesses a range of big projects including Eden at a meeting on June 4.
Eden Project Morecambe will be built on the promenade at the former Bubbles leisure complex site. It is being delivered in partnership with Lancaster City Council, Lancashire County Council and Lancaster University, and is due to open in 2028.
An update report for councillors says work is currently in the detailed design stage and adds: “Work has been progressing on the new design-to-cost programme. Modelling shows the project is still viable.”
The next Eden Project community consultation will be on Monday, June 9, at Morecambe Football Club, at 6pm. John Pye, the new project director of Eden Project Morecambe, is expected to attend, following his appointment earlier this year.
Bosses have also appointed an external design team, headed by WSP consultants and architects firm Grimshaw. WSP has previously supported Eden Project Morecambe with planning, highways and environmental work.
Grimshaw led the design of the original Eden Project in Cornwall and has worked with Eden Project Morecambe in earlier phases of the development.
Investigation which saw prison officer arrested after death of inmate continues
By Michael Holmes
A police investigation into the death of an inmate - which saw a prison officer arrested on suspicion of killing him - remains underway.
Derek Macdonald, 35, a prisoner at Lancaster Farms, died at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary after becoming “unwell and agitated”, Lancashire Police said.
He had been restrained at the hospital by prison guards and police officers shortly before he stopped breathing.
CPR was tried but Macdonald was declared dead about an hour later, at around 6.30pm on January 25.
The prison officer, a man in his 30s, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in Lancaster six days later “following enquiries”, Lancashire Police exclusively told The Lancashire Lead.
The guard, who has not been named, was later released under investigation.
“There is no significant update,” a police spokesman has now said, adding that the force’s probe is “ongoing”.
Lancashire Police’s own involvement was being routinely investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, while Macdonald’s death was also being looked into as a matter of routine by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.
Lancaster Farms is a category C resettlement prison for 500 to 600 men.
County Hall’s new era means less transparency thanks to risk of violence or intimidation
By Jamie Lopez
Lancashire’s new county councillors have been advised not to publicly disclose their addresses due to an apparent risk of “violence or intimidation”.
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