3 February 2010

Renaissance welcomes Scrutiny comments

Carlisle Renaissance has welcomed the comments of the City Council’s Resources Overview and Scrutiny panel, after the minutes of a special meeting were issued yesterday.

The meeting, held last week (Tuesday 26 January), explored progress made by Carlisle Renaissance. Renaissance wants to deliver a leading heritage city, with a world class university, successful city centre, and the infrastructure to support growth. The partnership’s Chair and Director outlined Renaissance’s achievements so far.

Bryan Gray, Chair of Carlisle Renaissance, said: “It was an opportunity to update city councillors on what Renaissance has contributed to Carlisle.

 “After this meeting, it is clearer to me now than ever before that there is a genuine desire from all of our partners to deliver on Renaissance priorities. We are a partnership, what we do is determined by our partners and we all need to work together to achieve the best for Carlisle. The role of the Board and the delivery team is to help make things happen. The Castle Street public realm scheme - one of a package of projects to bring more people into the city - is an excellent example of what we can achieve by working together.

“Other significant investments in great projects are coming forward in 2010. Multi-million pound projects such as the Roman Gateway will give local people a spectacular new gallery and better tourist trails. Work to equip the Old Town Hall to work harder for Carlisle will get underway. We’re even tackling Citadel Court Square, to create a fantastic sense of arrival and uncluttered attractive pedestrian route that increases footfall and spend in the area.”

Ian McNichol, Director of Carlisle Renaissance, said: “As well as exciting capital investments, we also told the panel how we’re working closely with the Carlisle Tourism Partnership to attract more visitors to Carlisle and to get more people spending in the city centre. Events backed by Renaissance include Welcoming the Light, a fabulous Lakes Alive torchlight procession on 13 March. This will draw at least 7,000 people into the city centre in a single evening. It’s a welcome boost for the local economy as well as an event we can all enjoy.

“Indeed, boosting the competitiveness of the city centre is one of our core priorities. We want to strengthen its position as a location for retail, leisure, cultural and commercial activities. We can’t force the development of particular areas but our job is to create an environment where people choose to come and which is attractive to investors, and that’s what we’re doing in supporting the emerging City Centre Partnership.”

Bryan Gray, Chair of Carlisle Renaissance, added: “I was also delighted to be able to update the panel on our cultural development work. It was certainly encouraging that thousands of people and organisations got involved in the run-up to Carlisle’s UK City of Culture bid, demonstrating that whilst a theatre and the bid were important for Carlisle, there is a fantastic cultural buzz in the city and much worth celebrating and developing. Carlisle will hear whether it has been shortlisted later this month, and either way the bid has been really powerful in pushing cultural development higher up the city’s agenda and attracting more attention to what Carlisle offers potential investors.”

It was agreed to increase the frequency of Renaissance meetings with the Scrutiny panel, and also that a programme of workshops will be introduced to encourage more councillors to get active in Carlisle Renaissance. Read the full minutes of the Scrutiny meeting online.