How to get the city moving – in more ways than one – was the topic of the latest Preston Partnership meeting and panel.

Whether that be when it comes to regeneration schemes or modes of transport it does feel like Preston is regularly stuck in second gear.

The slightest of blockages on the M6 and the city is choked as it remains the only viable diversion route to cross the River Ribble.

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Which makes all the ‘Active Travel’ presentations with CGI-scenes of happy cyclists, parents and children holding hands with daisy-lined verges and blue skies a far cry from the fumes of North Road and Garstang Road when the city grinds to a halt with what feels like increasing regularity.

There’s a definite anti-car movement in the schemes coming forward – from bus gates, to bollards, to cycle lane priorities, to pedestrianisation – the idea is to try and create a city centre where drivers are encouraged to park further away and then get on foot.

That’s fine in principle, but convenience will always win.

And as a number of the panel at the event pointed out, if you live in parts of suburban Preston and you’re trying to access the city centre, then relying on public transport is either inefficient or increasingly non-existent. It was telling, that likely of the 100 or so people in the room, the majority would have commuted by car to the event regardless of whether they had a public transport option or not. Breaking the four-wheel transport method is no easy feat. It’s also interesting how what are essentially redevelopment schemes, to encourage knock-on investment, are being badged as being ‘Active Travel’ and given an environmental edge.

The Preston Partnership panel discussed the concept of sustainability – be that from travel to regeneration – and while there’s plenty of potential Dan Hyde, from the Zero Ambitions podcast was bombastic in his support for the Preston Model (encouraging larger institutions in the city to try and spend and buy locally) and the potential of ‘places’small cities’ like Preston to ‘get on and do things’ it felt telling that much of what was talked about was set against the backdrop of a fire-ridden abandoned unsafe building a stones throw behind the panel and demolition rolling in Church Street after the latest tinderbox fire in the city centre in the space of a fortnight. No mention of either of those elephants in the room.

While the area around Animate, Friargate South, the Town Hall’s side streets, may be seeing new steels going up, shiny new paving, street lighting and more – it’s fast becoming a tale of two cities when you cross the Fishergate/Church Street divide heading towards Avenham and it’s a warning to those in the Town Hall to not become blinkered to Instagram versus reality. While the view in front may look good, what’s directly behind and out of shot is increasingly challenged.

Tougher talk is coming though – rumblings of enforcement action (Preston rarely takes it) and private developers being cajoled into ensuring their properties are secure. The city council’s deputy leader (and currently acting leader), in a recent social media post essentially shrugged shoulders at any assistance to those who own buildings privately. I suppose they’ve got their own RAAC-ridden buildings to contend with in fairness.

But it’s a sign of strained relations between some parts of public and private sectors in the city. Let’s hope both can find a way to get on the same page, as they did with the Towns Fund bid which led to Animate, the Youth Zone and more across the city centre.

It doesn’t solve the long-term trend of ‘land banking’ and popping a surface-level car park on a site to keep revenues ticking over rather than embrace the kinds of sustainable, multi-use and optimistic redevelopment schemes which were talked about by the likes of Gemma Cornwall, Chris Blackburn, Deborah Smith, James Traynor and Dan Hyde during the Preston Partnership event. Talk is fine, but money talks, and at present we’re not seeing the kind of major sums ploughed into the city (with the exception of the Animate scheme) that would be needed to take it up a level.

There also needs to be a realism to the kinds of development needed in the city – the climate is not a maritime balmy European one, it can be freezing, wet, dark and cold for many months (see the past seven days for a fairly standard snapshot). And Preston isn’t some kind of utopian hippy commune either, it’s a functioning administrative centre of a city with courts, university, colleges, businesses and plenty more. So having spaces where people want to spend time in indoors is crucial – be that for work, rest or play. Eyes roll each time there’s a ‘garden roof terrace’ included in an apartment scheme plan. Storm Bert [or the next named storm] must chuckle as it rips into the sedan furniture and pot plants.

And as well as environmental sustainability, building sustainability, there’s also financial sustainability – and that’s perhaps become in sharper focus since the budget for many businesses left doing calculations on how much more their monthly payroll is going to cost them. But there’s also political sustainability. The status quo appears to have its days marked, as a Combined Authority (with potentially deeper pockets) and calls for the scrapping of the two-tier local authority approach we have now (with increasingly unaligned County and Town halls). To tackle the kinds of sustainability challenges Preston has, both in its centre and across its suburbs, then maybe it is time for a new approach.

Until then we’ll all have to continue to see CGI-drawn dreamworks from architects but precious little, with some notable exhibitions, to show for it as the city centre in particular remains increasingly challenged and a transport system that is unreliable, disconnected and congested.

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