On 3 Jan 2018 at 5:44am Puzzled by planning wrote:
Why is it that new houses are sprouting up like mushrooms after rain in areas such as Ringmer and Uckfield but so little is done to build new housing in Lewes? Is the Phoenix development dead now? I appreciate that building over green fields is always easier than converting brownfield sites but the only new houses built in Lewes tend to be executive style, hugely unaffordable (to locals anyhow) affairs. Does the local planning authority have any interest in providing regular family homes in Lewes or is it powerless to regulate what gets built?
On 3 Jan 2018 at 6:02am Billy Bull wrote:
There are a lot happening in Lewes. 400 in a field at the back of Malling.
The problem Lewes has is a school has just closed to save money, the others are all over-subscribed, we have a limited road network and very little local employment and the commuter trains are already at capacity. So if you consider that those 400 houses might bring in 400 extra cars (probably more though), another 150 children needing a school place, 600 people needing health services and then several hundred needing jobs too, then you can see the problem.
Unfortunately the Government can't see the problem though, and continues to think it makes some kind of sense to saturate the South East with housing rather than develop industry and employment in areas with spare housing already and far more land and infrastructure to take it and the extra people. It's just another of the many ways this country is run by the clueless.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 8:20am Wd wrote:
They are building some new ones in Cooksbridge in the yard of Covers, and also quite a lot proposed at Barcombe.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 8:31am India wrote:
Yes, I totally and utterly agree with Billy Bull above. The government need to come and walk around the towns and villages of the south east to see the affect that hundreds of more houses would make.
Lewes is already suffering from too much traffic (as a recent thread by 'gobsmacked' highlighted), I cannot bear to think of an extra 400+ cars in our small town. It actually depresses me.
And for the record Puzzled by Planning, the houses being built on a green field in Ringmer (behind the little wooden furniture shop) are all going to be luxury 4 bed houses, being built by an 'executive' development, not affordable homes for local families. The Ringmer community fought long and hard against the houses being built - they do not have the capacity in the village (school/GP surgery etc) and did not want a lovely green field being developed in to houses with far reaching countryside views being totally spoilt because of the houses obscuring the view. There were countless meetings with the council and petitions against it, but residents were not listened to.
Ultimately, the government has given south east councils a target of houses to build and so the council are just whacking them up anywhere they can.
How can you say no houses in Lewes - 400 in Malling are on their way and phoenix is still going ahead. Plus at the mini roundabout by Aqua/Fuego a massive sign has gone up over Xmas saying 'new homes coming'. Lewes is about to get saturated. It is having the equivalent of half a town's worth of houses being built over next couple of years.
Uckfield is having 2,000 houses being built at the big roundabout where A22 joins A26 which will mean even more traffic through Lewes.
It's all starting to feel rather claustrophobic, and the general apathy amongst the local populations allows government to get away with all this.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 9:11am Bert wrote:
That's cos the UK is FULL, we ARE trying to put the sign up, but there's an argument about it apparently.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 11:35am Disgusted of Tunbridge W wrote:
The Malling 400 wouldn't be on the flood plain would they?
On 3 Jan 2018 at 12:01pm @Bert wrote:
Where do you make your judgement the UK is full? There's no evidence for it at all. There's 11,000 homes that have been empty for more than 10 years and many tens of thousands more empty for less than that. We can't get enough staff for the NHS or for farms or other industries despite having low unemployment. So what's your evidence. Genuinely curious.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 12:54pm @@ bert wrote:
You are the new village idiot bert.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 2:44pm PlanIt wrote:
Look at the Lewes Neighbourhood Plan on www.lewes4all.uk
On 3 Jan 2018 at 4:43pm India wrote:
But that's what upsets me so much, that there are thousands of empty houses/buildings that are not being utilised properly and yet new ones are being built over green land.
Going back a good few years now, I remember being in my geography class and being taught that green belt land was protected from being built on, and even though I was a child of 11 or 12, I had a very strong sense of relief that this was the case and I understood how vitally important it was to protect the countryside. Now of course that no longer applies and the government has decided green land can be built on. But it is a terrible, terrible mistake and I think future generations will suffer because of it.
So if I, as a child, could grasp this, then why can't the government?
On 3 Jan 2018 at 4:58pm Local realist wrote:
Lewes is getting approx 10% extra homes. Be realistic.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 6:35pm India wrote:
But it's not just Lewes.
It's Lewes, Barcombe, Ringmer, Chailey, Cooksbridge, Wivelsfield, Hurstpierpoint, Hassocks, Newhaven, Uckfield, Brighton, Hove.........I'm talking about the local area not only Lewes itself. The enormous swell in population, buildings and traffic is going to be nothing short of depressing.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 6:38pm India wrote:
And anyway local realist, 10% extra housing in Lewes is a lot. That's 10% extra buildings, then assume 2 or more people per building, so that's a minimum 20% population increase and that is A LOT for a small town.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 6:38pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
I recall being told not long ago that the population was now over 20,000, compared with 16,000 on 2001. If the population increases in line with the percentage increase in the number of homes, that will give a population of 22,000 soon after the time of the next census in 2021.
That would make an increase of over 1/3 in 20 years, without any significant investment in roads, jobs, public transport, or schools in the same period. Given that the scope for improving the flow of through traffic in town is negligible, I think it will be horrendous.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 7:27pm Living at home wrote:
But it doesn't necessarily mean extra cars, extra people needing healthcare, extra commuters etc. What about everyone like me who are in their 20s and 30s and still living at home? I have a car but it wouldn't be an extra one. I already have healthcare in Lewes. And I also already have a job in Lewes. Am I not allowed to have an affordable house built for me in the town that I grew up in, where my family lives, and where at least 7 previous generations also lived? I don't really want to be living at home when I'm 40 and I don't want to move away from everyone I know and care about
On 3 Jan 2018 at 10:10pm Observer wrote:
Good job you lot weren't around in the 1930s, or there would be no Nevill, no Landport, no Malling, no Winterbourne, no Houndean, and probably none of most of you either.
The point about infrastructure is a good one but I'd also like to see cars tamed a bit more in Lewes. Other towns manage it.
But more generally, the young people of this country desperately need homes. And it's no good saying build them all in parts of the country where none of you would even consider living.
On 3 Jan 2018 at 10:13pm Observer wrote:
You should also all read this before ranting on about green fields being built on.
Check it out here »
On 4 Jan 2018 at 2:01am Local Realist wrote:
India – your sums are rather primitive. If the new housing units are smaller than the current stock, the population won't be the linear % that you worry about, even before considering Living at Home's perfectly valid point.
On 4 Jan 2018 at 12:05pm Blatant Liar wrote:
You can't have it both ways, build out of towns to avoid extra congestion as much as possible (new villages on major roads is the best way, like the new village proposed near Albourne), or build in towns to save green field sites (knock down 1 house, build 3 etc).
This will always have the effect of extra local pressure, eventually extra roads and bypasses will need to be built anyway (so we're still using green field sites).
Proper long terms plans are needed not a few houses here and there.
On 4 Jan 2018 at 12:59pm Nevillman wrote:
I don't know why they don't build houses in the old southerham pit to the south of Lewes by the roundabout. It is huge, would be out of the way and excellent access to the A27. The issue of public services would still need to be addressed but as a place to put lots of houses it appears ideal to me.
On 5 Jan 2018 at 9:57am Observer wrote:
" (new villages on major roads is the best way, like the new village proposed near Albourne)" - no, they need to be on public transport nodes.
On 5 Jan 2018 at 2:34pm Elf wrote:
What is a public transport node?
On 5 Jan 2018 at 7:14pm Local chap wrote:
Poncy term for bus-stop or train-station. Simples.