People of Lancaster! Please Like , Share and support this! An open letter to Allied Lancaster LTD, Lancaster City Council, and the people of Lancaster. Dear Reader, I’m 23, I grew up in Lancaster, I live locally and I’m unemployed. I feel that the plan to replace the old Lancaster Market with Primark is not something we can be proud of and should be reconsidered. The once thriving Lancaster Market Hall, like all good things, had to die. It was outdated, didn’t meet the needs of the people and subsequently lost £650,000 a year. However, the plan to replace Lancaster Market with Primark is quite frankly offensive and demeaning in that it shows so little vision of what Lancaster as a community can be. I would be interested to know how this plan was passed, was there a democratic vote? How did you reach the conclusion that Primark was the best possible replacement of the market? The Lancaster Market space is 50,000 sq ft. The plan is to fill 50,000sq ft with Primark and it’s been done with thirteen million pounds of our taxes. It is set to be the biggest retailer in our City. Joseph Campbell, the cultural anthropologist said; “If you want to understand what’s most important to a society, simply look at its biggest buildings.” We should ask ourselves; what is most important to us? Our people and our environment? Or Primark’s Profit? Allowing Primark to own 50,000 sq ft of our city means that we implicitly endorse the galling inequality that this multi-national corporation pursues. Primark made over £300,000,000 this year and yet the company pays their sales assistants barely a living wage. Not to mention the degrading sweat shop conditions enforced on workers in third world countries. Yes, the company creates jobs for people, I’m not denying that, but should humanity, values and ethics be compromised for mass profit that only reaches the self-serving corporate few? I know that some people will say “but we want Primark”, of course they do. We live in a world where we are constantly told that we are not good enough, pretty enough, cool enough, we don’t look right and the panacea we are given is to pop down Primark and distract ourselves by buying disposable fashion. Primark operates on the premise that as a society we are discontent. And we are. I think the reason that we are not satisfied is because we are devoid of community and a sense of common purpose. So instead of trying to fill that black hole with Primark, a fob us off solution, why don’t we transform Lancaster Market together into a new, thriving, innovative community hub? This could include; a flexible educational space for people to develop skills and share ideas, space for small businesses to develop, local food stalls, a well-being centre where people can practice Yoga and other fitness, a venue for people to exhibit projects, a platform for speakers and performers and musicians, artisan produce and vintage shops, a voluntary and independent sector. It has the potential to create worthwhile jobs for the unemployed, it could partly operate on an exchange or trade basis, and it would be inclusive of all members of Lancaster. This is blue sky thinking and I know many citizens of Lancaster will have their own ideas on what the space can be used for, but, as far as I’m aware currently there is no channel available with which to express them. I don’t have a full business model but I do know that if £13,000,000 of our taxes have been used to erect Primark, we have a stake and therefore a right to re-assess this plan. Let’s value people and the planet before mass profit of corporations. Let’s support our small businesses. Let’s establish a real community that celebrates equality and diversity. This is a real opportunity to make an investment in the future of our community and we have the potential to come together, reclaim ownership and create an epicentre that will serve people in a way that Primark never could.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 17:07:20 +0000
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