On 9 May 2017 at 2:46pm Mister Nomer wrote:
Make sure to have a look at the draft plan which will have a huge impact on how the town develops over the next decade or two.
There's a fairly short consultation process in place so if you want to comment better hurry up.
Seems to be quite a few errors in the document. It's been much delayed and the impression given is that it's been rushed out before it was quite ready. There's an awful lot of flannel in there too but that is par for the course.
The gist of it is really that Lewes is obliged to find room for a lot of new houses in the coming years. The neighbourhood plan represents the process of choosing between the few sites where these houses can be built.
Personally I think it would be better if this was done entirely independently and not by locals at all (or go all out democrary and have a vote on it). The hybrid system we have means that inevitably there is a suspicion of (subconscious) pre-judgment and self-interest hidden behind a load of nebulous policies and expensive appraisals. It's certainly taken a lot of work.
Anyway judge for yourselves.
Check it out here »
On 9 May 2017 at 4:16pm tobnac wrote:
Thanks Mr Nomer, v useful to have this highlighted. If you can't be botherred to read through all of the context and policy waffle, then the key page (with the housing allocation map) is p59. Pages 60-82 then offer more detail on each site.
To my mind, most of the proposed sites look sensible. Apart from Spring Barn Farm - that seems to be stretching the definition of brownfield to me.
On 9 May 2017 at 4:43pm Chav wrote:
I'm sure they could've fitted that lot into 2 pages if they tried.
On 9 May 2017 at 5:09pm Billy Bull wrote:
Silly question, but instead of building housing for several thousand more people in a town in an area with already stretched infrastructure and where most people already commute because of lack of local employment, why don't they build them somewhere more economically sensible?
On 9 May 2017 at 6:57pm Wotcher wrote:
@Billy Bull ... "They" will do both. Such is the shortage of housing in all communities.
As Mister Nomer says, though, there is a case for not paying too much attention to what the locals think, since large numbers of us instinctively want houses to be built elsewhere. That won't solve the problem.
On 9 May 2017 at 8:43pm Billy Bull wrote:
I'd support houses here if there was a plan for employment that didn't mean commuting to London.
On 9 May 2017 at 9:14pm Bob wrote:
Building on town centre car parks doesn't seem at all sensible to me
On 10 May 2017 at 9:16am Cyclaman wrote:
Mister Normer - good points, but to confirm there will be an 'all out democracy vote' on it. All neighbourhood plans have to be passed by a local referendum. Who knows when that will be though...
On 10 May 2017 at 10:16am Mister Nomer wrote:
thanks Cyclaman!
On 10 May 2017 at 11:58am Wotcher wrote:
Lewes is the focal point of a large district, all of whose residents have an interest in the facilities the town provides, including housing and jobs. How can it be right for a referendum to be confined to residents of the parish?
On 10 May 2017 at 1:42pm bobobob wrote:
Seems like a sensible choice other than the car park!
@ Billy bull, page 60 says that the government has decided how many homes must be built if there is development plan but can't see if it says it's central or local government who decided to start development.
On 10 May 2017 at 2:43pm Deja Vu wrote:
Won't don't we just stop sodding about and build a new large estate between Mallings and Landport and combine it with a new road and bridge between the A26 and the A275.
A proper long term plan for a few thousand houses that actually eases congestion in the middle of Lewes not adds to it.
On 10 May 2017 at 2:45pm Cyclaman wrote:
Wotcher - the reason is because it Neighbourhood Plans are Town/Parish Council led, and the Town Council that stand to benefit from additional receipts from the community infrastructure levy (CIL).
It's not place to say whether that's fair or not (although housing on the estates will affect Lewesians much more than those who live elsewhere), however the same argument could very easily be applied to Special Expenses, among other things. Likewise if I were living in a neighbouring village, I might be tempted to vote through a Lewes Neighbourhood Plan with lots of housing in inappropriate places, because that way my own village Neighbourhood Plan (which, by your logic above, wouldn't feature in many spheres of influence and therefore be exempt from outside influence) would need to find fewer housing sites.
On 10 May 2017 at 5:26pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
Deja Vu, I don't think building outside of the town will prevent increased traffic in town. People will still come into Lewes to get trains, to shop, visit the doctor, go to school/college and so on.
And the A275/Nevill Road is busy enough in rush hour without people using it as an alternative to the A26 to access the A27!
On 10 May 2017 at 5:40pm Tobnac wrote:
Note that the proposal for the station car park is to put the housing on a deck built over the retained car park.
I agree it's not ideal to lose the car park opposite the police station, but I think it's also an opportunity to improve the appearance of that corner with a well designed building. I'm sure there must have been buildings there in the past.
On 10 May 2017 at 5:54pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
Blimey, now I've had a look at the proposed housing sites, not only are they proposing to build on car parks but they're doing away with a lot of garages as well.
Given that parking provision will be limited to one space per household in many cases, and that a lot of families have two cars, I reckon the town will be in perrmanent gridlock with people driving round endlessly trying to find somewhere to park if all these proposals go ahead.
On 10 May 2017 at 9:15pm Uncle Bob wrote:
Got to agree, given the issues in Malling with parking I wont be voting for any loss of parking be it car parks or garages. I would also hope to see adequate parking provision for any new houses.
On 11 May 2017 at 7:28am Tobnac wrote:
Do people actually keep their cars in those garages? The ones I've seen inside are used for storage. They look too narrow for modern cars.
On 11 May 2017 at 9:57am Deja Vu wrote:
It would give an alternative route from one side of Lewes to the other ACT.
A badly needed second bridge, plus the road infrastructure to expand there for the next few decades.
Building in all the small spaces is just compounding the traffic and parking problems and worse than that it barely covers todays housing requirements let alone planning for the next few decades.
If they can combine the housing and highways strategies (and plan for 50 years ahead not 10 years behind) and build new houses/roads in locations that would route traffic away from existing hot spots, I can't help but feel we would all benefit.
Alternatively I guess we can continue to build hundreds more homes in the centre of town and ignore the traffic and parking issues... As per the current plan.
On 11 May 2017 at 6:01pm Do pay attention! wrote:
First up - the bulldozers aren't parked round the corner! the point of the plan is not to build anything but to influence what happens when developers come along with cash and apply to build. if you don't have a plan then you get what their architects and the planning system gives you, and it makes it hard to say no 'cos developers have deep pockets and tame lawyers.
Second - its the guvvermint that sets the targets on house numbers and the national park that divvies them out across their empire. If the Council don't do a plan then they could end up anywhere and look awful.