Last updated 11:22, Thursday, 27 November 2008

REGARDING Lady Gillford House (News & Star, November 15).

Vision of future: An impression of what the proposed new county archive offices at Lady Gillford House at Petteril Bank, Carlisle, might look like

On which side of London Road do you live? On the Harraby side? Or opposite, on the Petteril Bank side ?

If you live on the Harraby side, you are okay for knowing what is going on in your area as far as you local council is concerned.

Cumbria County Council is pushing the boat out with extra help to involve and inform the community as much as possible.

It is implementing a new law to make this happen.

But if you live on the other side, things are not good at all.

There appear to be barriers in Petteril Bank blocking off people from getting to know what the council is doing.

That, at least, is the experience of the local community group, Carlisle South Community Association.

The association has tried several times over the last year or two to get to know what is happening at Lady Gillford House, the former Georgian mansion in Petteril Bank which is owned by the council.

In the grounds of the house, the council is building prestigious offices to store county records. The National Lottery is footing much of the £5m bill in what is the biggest single development in the area for many years.

Because of this importance, the association wished to be kept up with building progress and get a talk about it from time to time at the association’s monthly meetings.

Sadly no one from the county council on the Petteril Bank side of London Road can be found to talk about this development.

And the association has to rely on what appears to be the only source of news of Lady Gillford House.

That source, incredibly, is a political newsletter.

That newsletter seems to get all the news of Lady Gillford House. And it is bang up to date.

The news always appears to have a political slant and not everyone wishes to read it, particularly when the newsletter cannot spell Lady Gillford House correctly.

But it does seem extraordinary that the council has instituted almost gold-standard measures to keep the community informed on one side of London Road.

Yet on the other side, only a select few are kept in the picture.

Name and address supplied

Carlisle