On 30 May 2014 at 6:24pm Realist wrote:
Really interesting meeting last night. I had no idea that there was so much going on there. They need our support.
On 30 May 2014 at 7:15pm thinker wrote:
I agree - but lets shed that dreadful corporate speak name: 'North Street Quarter' indeed! - when the word Phoenix echoes through the years. (without that cringe making quarter!)
They need enormous support to fight big business - and enormous financial support too.The whole town has to back them; then history may well be made. Plus of course making a delicious precedent and example for other communities under siege from big money and the global bulldozers. We will need the skill of our resident media magicians here as well.
It's worth investigating Santon's financial history and background by the way....
On 30 May 2014 at 7:38pm bastian wrote:
They did seem to have some positive ideas for Lewes for the people of the town. Good luck to them I hope they get this off the ground.
On 30 May 2014 at 10:07pm convenient wrote:
I believe the nice newly fenced off area where that shed burnt down is to be the Santon site offices and that activity will start there soon . So there will at last be some progress with the development . A friend who rents some storage down there has already been told his will be among the first buildings to be demolished .
On 31 May 2014 at 4:37pm bastian wrote:
They are not allowed to build anything until they have planning permission, they have not got that yet. Santon have a nice clean office on the estate-they made sure theirs was the warmest. Every one down there knows that they have a short notice over their heads IF the planning permission is given, until then it's business as usual.
Let's hope something better is put forward to the council/National Park-a build that is actually for the people of Lewes.
On 31 May 2014 at 6:28pm convenient wrote:
Errrr do you mean some of the people of Lewes because I think you ll find there is a lot of local people who would like to see that eyesore dealt with ,and some more housing for those poor people who have to live in vans down there !!
On 31 May 2014 at 10:42pm lewes wrote:
Looking forward to santons development and planning app is due to be posted next month so sadly the public meeting happened all too late. Perhaps if this had happened directly after stiles went bankrupt rather than waiting for another developer to buy several years later and carry out public consultations in 2013 and 2014 then put in a planning app next month. Too little, too late and to think that people at that meeeting had no idea anything was going on. Unbelievable totally dropped the ball.
On 31 May 2014 at 10:45pm public meeting wrote:
The hilarious part at the meeting is that they oppose santons plans yet don't have any themselves or any financial backing.
On 1 Jun 2014 at 7:25am thinker wrote:
Actually there is an alternative plan and there is financial backing;
I wonder if Santon apologists are posting here...
Our towns in the UK are being ruined by big business. Not just their beauty - cruclal for Lewes' tourism - but also the balance and health of their communities. And it can happen really quickly. Really the development proposed by Santon amounts to a kind of social cleansing; the dwellings will be bought by buy to let landlords or DFLs. There is no realistic prospect of social housing and the 'affordable' housing in reality means nothing of the kind.The care home provision so winsomely described to a meeting of the elderly in Lewes suits Santon rather than the town....this development will be like a sealed off capsule rather than a living breathing, mixed part of Lewes.
I think many people in Lewes were shocked by the plans recently unveiled by Santon in a public meeting. They make no concession to the lovely nuanced architecture of Lewes - just a few trendy pastiches... We don't want a lump of cheap homogenous junk. Santon's development in Brighton does little to dispel fears of that! Santon's architect was the designer of the Printworks; there are considerable problems in that development now....Also I think Santon may sell the plans on so truly there is no control.
What is needed in the Phoenix is a development that provides the social housing without which our community as we know it will die. We need housing of sympathetic design not generic cheap tat and we need enterprise to continue there in order to provide communal life.
In other words we need sensible grounded plans reflecting Lewes' needs. This needn't cost the earth but it does need the vision that the Santon machine so palpably lacks. That is not too much to ask when the council owns a substantial part of the land!
I believe like Bastian that with unity we can achieve a development that suits the town's needs. It is a sign of the times that we have to fight in order to achieve this. Fighting greed has become has become an everyday story; I do hope the journalists in our community will be able to spread the news of our successful fight in the future.
On 1 Jun 2014 at 7:43am lewes wrote:
Please show us your proposal and begin the consultation process then. Wherecan I see you detailed plans. Santon own the land so how do you propose to get them to sell it to you. How will you stop their planning app going in next month and being accepted. I cant see that the akternative proposal is anything more than apipe dream show us something tangiable.
On 1 Jun 2014 at 8:07am Clifford wrote:
thinker wrote: 'There is no realistic prospect of social housing and the 'affordable' housing in reality means nothing of the kind.'
And of course the Tories and Lib Dems in the Coalition have made it easier for their deveoper friends to evade any affordable housing obligations:
Check it out here »
On 1 Jun 2014 at 10:21am Fussy Eater wrote:
Housing aint affordable nowhere, get over it !! Or get motivated to improve your lot in life.
On 1 Jun 2014 at 11:48am thinker wrote:
Fussy eater - if only it were thus.
The redistribution of wealth in this country has made 'improving your lot' well nigh impossible although the egregious propaganda of the government in its demonization of the poor has made this difficult to grasp. You really are more likely now to work hard all your life and still remain impoverished and without assets.
Your post seems so sad really. Of course we should fight for everyone to have a roof over their head; it's a basic right. We should never give this up in the face of greed and exploitation. That housing is unaffordable isn't unavoidable.
If government would stop encouraging people to use their houses as cash registers, if developers were forced to release their land banks, if people were encouraged to build their own properties,
if new innovations in domestic builds were adopted, if buy to let was reined in, if tenants were given long term security of tenure, if rents were capped, if more social housing were built - and not sold to tenants..... then housing would be affordable. We should not lose sight of this.
The fundamental point is that the government for all sorts of reasons useful to THEM chooses not to. They could effect fundamental change for the better for us all; thy choose to line the pockets of their masters and reconfigure society instead. Even Mark Carney has made this point and compared our housing policy unfavourably with that of his own country!
On 1 Jun 2014 at 1:17pm Black sands wrote:
Guess its not allowed under eu law to be called the black sand quarter ?
On 1 Jun 2014 at 7:50pm Roger Whittaker wrote:
Thinker - I don`t believe in IF anymore .
On 2 Jun 2014 at 12:24am Historian wrote:
So we should all be pulled down to thinkers level ? Sit back and wait for a handout? Get a job, then get a second job, stop wasting money on coffees, mobile phones and other sapping expenses. Start really stashing money away, then you might make something for the future. Or just sit on your a€$e and wait.
On 2 Jun 2014 at 11:58am Trouble wrote:
I thin k you misunderstood and misconstrued thinkers post Historian. Try reading it again.
On 2 Jun 2014 at 2:09pm bastian wrote:
Historian, your comment is crass,do you really think that any price is ok to pay for housing? Most families with twor working adults are struggling to pay non extravigent bills and you tell them to get another job on top of their existing job? where does quality of life fit in to your philosophy. I can see why thinker calls themselves thinker.
On 3 Jun 2014 at 10:45pm Rodin`s Gormless Bugger wrote:
Where`s me Special Brew ?