On Friday afternoon, Lancaster City Council published 342 pages of papers for Wednesday’s full council meeting. However, they have all been published as exempt items and are not accessible to anyone beyond city councillors and officers.

The Lancaster Labour has asked that at least those portions of the covering report summarising the project’s history and outline the risks to the city council be made public.

Many of the papers contained within the pack contain commercially sensitive information and/or are part of the contract between Lancashire County Council and Homes England. One of the reasons officers have given for needing to maintain confidentiality is that releasing the information could make it harder for the Lancashire County Council to get best value quotes for infrastructure works as it reveals budget estimates and for Lancaster City Council to collect the roof tax needed by the County Council to defray infrastructure costs.

We want residents to be confident that councillors are considering the right issues with the correct information.

Access what is available of the council papers here.

Read more about the South Lancaster Growth Catalyst Project here.