Save The Ribble has found out the identities of the members of the Preston Vision Board - the group that, with the support of Preston City Council, and consultancy firm GVA Grimley has published glossy leaflets advocating the building of a barrage across the Ribble and 4000 houses in the greenbelt nearby.

The members are largely representatives of local quangos, but who the few private sector representatives are makes very interesting reading.

First of all, of course, is Grosvenor Estates - a major property developer, belonging to the 3rd richest man in the country.

Also interesting is Jeremy Gorick, he is joint managing director of Flexcrete, a company that "manufactures a range of concrete repair materials and protective coatings for buildings and civil engineering structures, the water industry and marine structures, as well as specialist products such as car park decking systems and waterproof floor coatings".

So the situation is that we have representatives of a firm that supplies sprayed concrete technologies used in the construction of marinas, and a firm who's business is the development of housing and commercial properties, advocating the construction of an enormous marina, and the development of large amounts of housing and commercial properties along the Ribble, and being supported in these plans with public money from the NWDA, and the time of Preston and South Ribble Council Officers. Council officers who are incidentally paid by local council tax payers - who don't want to see the beautiful countryside by the Ribble turned into a housing estate, and it's precious environment destroyed by a barrage.

Here's the list of members, as supplied by Nicola Turner, Preston City Vision Manager:

Malcom McVicar (UCLAN)
Jeremy Gorick (Iotech/Liquid Plastics/Flexcrete)
Keith Scott (Retired Architect)
Steve Jackson (New Reg Dot Com)
Grosvenor Estates
Khalid Saifullah (ABF Ent)
Alan Roff (Preston Strategic Partnership); (& UCLan)
David Borrow MP
Paul Spooner (English Partnership)
Jim Carr (Preston City Council)
Steve Dean (LCDL)
Jean Hunter (SRDC)
Denis Taylor (Lancashire Economic Partnership)