On 28 May 2015 at 5:19pm Fairmeadow wrote:
Lewes DC have published an anodyne and uninformative press release, plus a list of 30 of the "49 sites" on which they plan to develop new homes. All as clear as mud to me - I'm probably being thick. Are some of these to be new council houses? Just be delivered in time to be sold off to their tenants i expect.
Five sites in Lewes, on Christie Road (St Mary's?), Fisher Street (old Housing offices?), Ham Lane (odd place for new housing?), Juggs Road (sounds a nice address) & Western Road (toilets?), but the maps don't work for me (yes, I do have Acrobat).
Check it out here »
On 28 May 2015 at 5:35pm Red wrote:
The ham lane one encompasses the tip and a strip of ditch along behind the Convent Field
Check it out here »
On 28 May 2015 at 5:43pm Leveller wrote:
Blimey, they're certainly going to p1$$ a few people off with those proposals. What's going to happen with the tip down Ham lane? and would you want to live next to a sewerage plant ?
On 28 May 2015 at 6:07pm trooper wrote:
@Leveller , You are so so right,@Fairmeadow, yes you are right about the maps, dreadfull,Perhaps that is deliberate in order we may be so confused we will not understand.Fat chance !!!
On 28 May 2015 at 6:35pm Southover Queen wrote:
The site on Juggs Rd is the homeless hostel just before Jubilee Gardens, on the left going up. It's a big old Edwardian house with modern extensions at the back. Apparently they're getting rid of it because the flats are substandard.
I'd like to know why they don't just upgrade the flats so that they aren't substandard any more rather than selling off something which is such a scarce resource. Still a large house in that position must be worth a few bob...
On 28 May 2015 at 7:23pm xplorer1 wrote:
Bit of an anticlimax really, for Lewes at least.
On 28 May 2015 at 8:09pm Tipper wrote:
No doubt we'll be expected to take our rubbish to Newhaven now and they'll build houses on the tip. At least the users of St Mary's have managed to make enough of a fuss to salvage the community centre there. Hope that it's still big enough for the panto.
On 28 May 2015 at 9:49pm Richard Hannay wrote:
I say! more exciting than the 39 steps.
On 28 May 2015 at 10:41pm RedHeartedCyclist wrote:
Don't worry if this is the English version of Glasnost, there's nothing to hope for......
On 29 May 2015 at 9:44am Angry Local wrote:
Selling off carparks and unused strips of woodland surrounded by other roads/development makes some sense, but selling off valuable, and well used community ammenities such as St marys Social Centre, the Ham Lane Tip (and the Western Rd toilets) - what a bunch of muppets we have as councillors.....
I love their comment about St Marys Social Centre "it will be reveloped with the minimum possible disruption" - that's a statement that sounds good on paper but that actually means naff all. Twelve months permanent closure might be considered "minimum possible disruption" by the developers, as might leaving the centre untouched, but closing access to the car park for a few months....
Neither case bodes well for the thriving playgroup, who have to provide a minimum number of "sessions" per school year/term to be remain open under OFSTED rules, and equally, it will be impossible to redevelop the hall itself in any way without closing it.... All the other user goups will have to relocate durign any closures too, or take a break, during which memebers may drift away never to return..
The (previous) councillors have indeed consulted groups who use St Marys, yes, but have they actually listened to what the users said ..NO!
Conusltation if fine, but it is onlya "box ticking" exercise so far as the Concil are concerned, they can , and do consult, but then carry on regardless...
I trust all Lewes residents will get a reduction in council tax to allow for the fact that they may now have to make a spcial trip down C7 to Newhaven and back to dump rubbish rather than pop down to Ham Lane whilst out an about in town on other business...and all those added car journeys on C7, that'll do wonders for the environment.
I just hope Newhaven Tip isn't closed as often as Ham lane for skip changes - if I've made a special trip to Newhaven only to find tip is closed I'll simply unload my rubbish at their gate and drive back to Lewes... I'm not going to hang around waiting having already committed c.40mins on the round trip.
As ever the council haven't really listened to those that elected them.
On 29 May 2015 at 2:46pm Paula wrote:
I know most people in Lewes town didn't vote Conservative in the District Council elections so I hope they chase up their Green/Indpendent/LibDem councillors if they are unhappy...
On 29 May 2015 at 2:49pm belladonna wrote:
Seems mad to sell off the tip - surely that area is liable to flooding ?
St Mary's social centre - a bad decision
Juggs Lane - this is a prime site - if the council provides suitable short term accommodation for homeless elsewhere in Lewes or as part of its redevelopment I have no objection to it.
The district desperately needs new social housing and my concern is that the new homes built are exactly that- not 'affordable' under current criteria (which is not affordable to most in need). The model is the expensive new houses will subsidise the new 'affordable' homes.
The new social housing of course must remain in council hands and not be sold off...
It would be interesting if the council were to try some imaginative thinking to try and solve the housing problems - such as self-build for prospective tenants (might appeal to the more eco minded - maybe the van dwellers at the Phoenix ?) . This was tried in Brighton a few years ago ( there was a TV prog about it) and seems like a good community was created.....
On 29 May 2015 at 3:20pm Bob wrote:
Can the public bid for these or are they already sold off to developers only to produce social housing?
On 29 May 2015 at 3:26pm yawn wrote:
The sheer ignorance and willingness to jump on the bandwagon of you lot never ceases to amaze me. If you look at the map of the parcel of land in Ham Lane for sale its nowhere near the tip nor the access road - still lets complain as usual without the facts eh?
On 29 May 2015 at 3:36pm visually able wrote:
Yawn - Look at the sheet marked site ref 16(b) then, please post your above post again if you think it still applies!
On 29 May 2015 at 4:40pm trooper wrote:
Speaking of housing,how are matters progressing with St Anne's, it has all gone very quiet.
On 29 May 2015 at 4:49pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
I'm surprised to see Ham Lane on the list. The road is very narrow and floods, it has a blind bend at the Dripping Pan end and it gets very big lorries going along there. I'm dubious that planning permission would, in the normal run of things, be granted for any residential development along there on traffic grounds alone.
Can the council still award itself planning permission, or do they have to apply to the SDNPA?
On 29 May 2015 at 10:40pm AuntieAviator wrote:
"The district desperately needs new social housing"
The district desperately needs more market housing as well - judging by the price of homes and the fact very little has been built for a generation.
On 29 May 2015 at 10:40pm Vote of no confidence wrote:
So LDC own most of the Pheonix and they haven't got the vision to build their council houses there. On no, they have to knock down local community assets to do that. Seriously, when will residents march to LDC and demand the resignation of Jenny Rowlands. Public assets belong to the public. Why not have a public referendum on such an important sell off of public assets. I bet my house that this 'public consultation' is just as bone fide as FIFA. What a bloody discrace of a District Coucil. Cllrs and officers should be bloody ashamed of themselves. We won't be druv in Lewes. Rise up folks and stop this madness!!
On 30 May 2015 at 4:24am SHS wrote:
More info on these and others in surrounding villages has been freely available for some time here:
Check it out here »
On 30 May 2015 at 4:26am SHS wrote:
....see Appendix D (Site Assessments by Area): Lewes.
On 30 May 2015 at 6:22am Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
I have to disagree with Auntie Aviator about very little having been built in the district for a generation. There have been lots of new developments in the 24 years I've lived here. There's been a lot of new building in Seaford, Peacehaven, Chailey and Newhaven.
In Lewes itself there's been a lot of new developments. Admittedly, most of them have been small ones, but there have been an awful lot of them: the old fire brigade HQ site, Pewter Pot and Caffyns, Tanners Brook, the Nurseries, Albion Street, Timberyard Lane. Lewes House and the Baxters site alone created more than 130 new homes.
There's also been a lot of conversion of offices and retail to housing, from individual shops becoming residential to things like the former library HQ in St Anne's Crescent.
The population of Lewes increased from 16,000 to 20,000 between the 2001 and 2011 censuses. They must all have gone somewhere!
All this has been done without a single new school or GP surgery being built in Lewes, no improvement to the roads or public transport and a reduction in parking.
On 30 May 2015 at 8:40am Zebedee wrote:
These plans are just the start. The Barcombe map details sufficient land for only 2 or 3 houses whereas the village is charged with building a minimum of 30 new dwellings before 2030 (see LDCs 'Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment).
ACT hits the nail on the head though. LDC have to facilitate the development of 5,600 new dwellings before 2030 but no plans have been made to update the infrastructure to support the additional population (excepting widening the A27). Water, transport and health provision are particularly stressed, even with existing numbers.
On 30 May 2015 at 9:50am Sparky wrote:
And as we all know, the electricity ain't reliable either !
On 31 May 2015 at 10:54pm AuntieAviator wrote:
"There have been lots of new developments in the 24 years I've lived here."
I take your point about infrastructure. But the number of homes you're talking about is really quite small compared to population growth. In terms of the 4,000 extra people I suspect most of that is produced by increasing household sizes and sharers etc.
But consider the 24 years between 1930 and 1954. Over that period both Nevill and Landport were built as well as part of Malling and Winterbourne. That's probably the scale of building we need now, to be honest.