On 12 Dec 2013 at 7:22pm Country Boy wrote:
OK, so what do you good people of Lewes want instead?
On 12 Dec 2013 at 7:24pm Smiling boy wrote:
Something along the lines of Newick Place
On 12 Dec 2013 at 8:00pm Townie wrote:
Nothing...let's just leave it as it is as a derilict, unused building. Can't wait.
On 12 Dec 2013 at 8:06pm kev wrote:
a cinema
On 12 Dec 2013 at 8:10pm Extra wrote:
Adapt the existing building into a Premier Inn.
On 12 Dec 2013 at 8:11pm shopkeeper wrote:
Please could we have another shop selling expensive candles , hairy string , sketches by local artists ,some stuff pretending to be vintage ( 2nd hand ) oh and maybe it could have a café at the back with some very expensive snacks and fair trade coffee . Oh hang on , a new inexpensive hotel might be better !
On 12 Dec 2013 at 8:56pm Border Control wrote:
Make a good overflow Prison, or Asylum holding bay, its built strong enough. Or rehouse those from the Phoenix.
On 12 Dec 2013 at 10:45pm Xplorer1 wrote:
Well it's good news. If the Planning Committee had approved this one, it would have meant open season for developers all over the town. I wonder if Quora will appeal, revise their plans or walk away?
On 12 Dec 2013 at 11:12pm Town Flyer wrote:
Probably would have made a fine police station, but oh yes, we just wasted millions on building a new one.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 5:22am The Kronic wrote:
Let's turn it into another antique shop. What about a hairdressers ? or top of my list would be a third cheese shop.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 7:27am shs wrote:
Excellent news. The fact is that sale of the demolition material would probably bring the developer a very considerable sum of money, given the quality of construction of the current building.
My proposal is to convert the existing building to include a free-access science and manufacturing demonstration and practice lab, and also to be an incubator for manufacturing and engineering start-up companies, giving low or free rental for the first 3 years and working closely with local schools and colleges (if engineering, science & technical skills haven't already been pushed out by arts and media teaching).
On 13 Dec 2013 at 7:41am The Kronic wrote:
Yeah, like we really need that SHS. What an absolute pile of festering zit puss that is...we have a college for that or some of those units over on the shanty town. I'd rather an antiques or cheese shop
On 13 Dec 2013 at 8:18am Country Boy wrote:
So nobody can come up with a better idea - exactly what I expected!
On 13 Dec 2013 at 8:42am The Kronic wrote:
How about a Premier Inn country Boy ? Simplez
On 13 Dec 2013 at 9:12am bruce wrote:
Why not a hotel sympathetic to Lewes, a town whose prosperity is tied into the tourist trade because of its lucky heritage of a - largely -beautiful townscape?
Quora at present have failed Lewes; perhaps they will resubmit a plan with more integrity that will cost more. They know there is money to be made and yet went for rock bottom
investment and design.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 10:03am Ratty wrote:
Country Boy, Extra has come up with an excellent proposal supported by a number of people . Adapt the current building as a Premier Inn.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 10:10am Long-time resident wrote:
As others have intimated, no more "retail units" full of over-priced trendy tat and/or pretentious and over-priced coffee bars or eateries, thank you, we have more than enough of those already.
I suspect most local residents objected to the eye-sore new building that Prem Inn were proposing rather than the arrival of a 'budget hotel' per se?
Encourage Prem Inn (or another chain) to convert the existing building to a budget hotel internally, but ensure they leave the exterior largely unchanged, and I think it would then prove a more popular proposition among local residents.
Some of the "budget chains" like Holiday Inn Express, and newer/refitted Prem Inns, offer very pleasent accomodation at keen prices - the days of budget hotels offering only stark "cell-like" rooms with a tired old bed and a beaten up formica desk and chair are fast disappearing.
I have no problem if other hotels in town would see the arrival of a clean, tidy, smart, value-for-money hotel as a "threat" to their businesses, as they obviously need to raise their 'value-for-money' offerring.
Budget price accomodation might bring more people into the town outside the usual tourist season on "long-weekend" breaks etc, and might lead to more smaller-business clients staying in the town during the working week. Both groups of clientele might spend their evenings in the town's pubs, bars and restaurants if the new hotel was not permitted to offer a restaurant facility as part of the planning approval.
Lewes will never compete with the bright lights and bustling night life of Brighton (thank heavens), which is so close, so I don't think we need fear a budget hotel attracting too many drunken stag- or hen-parties I think Lewes would attract the older, or more discerning customers, who seek out good value for money, and who look for more from their destination than bright lights, loud music, and booze on tap.
Instead it might attract those who want to do business in town during the week, and those who want to enjoy the beauty of the National park, and enjoy exploring a pictureseque, character-full, town during the weekends.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 10:10am sherlock wrote:
how about a knocking shop
On 13 Dec 2013 at 11:46am John Stockdale wrote:
The South Downs National Park Planning Committee were unanimous that the proposed building just wasn't good enough. There were no objections in principle to a hotel (budget or otherwise). It seems there is unlikely to be an alternative use for the present building - but you never know. The Court is in an area that flooded so anything residential on the ground floor is problematic. I feel sorry for Quora in some ways. They weren't offering an off the peg building that was adapted from elsewhere. They had made an effort to do the right thing by consulting SDNP officers and using local materials including an adaptation based on mathematical tiles. Unfortunately the building they submitted just didn't pull it off.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 11:49am Penguin wrote:
Knock it down and extend the car park.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 11:53am Andy wrote:
This is the classic strategy of a big developer like Quora - ask for a ridiculously ambitious scheme - get it rejected. The Council, Planners, Locals are relieved & very self congratulatory about their opposition...
Then the developer waits a few months, submits a revised scheme saying they've "listened to feedback" submitting a slightly revised scheme - perhaps add some parking, lower the roof, etc, etc. Then the Planners & Council say - oh, this is so much better than before - think what it could have been!
Planners are under pressure to approve & the developer has very good planning consultants. Premier Inn is Whitbread - this is not a local developer - so you can expect lots of corporate tenants in the ground floor shops such as Tesco, Subway, Dominos Pizza.
Wait 2 years and you'll see more small, locally owned, independent shops closing. Council should do more and support local retailers.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 1:25pm Border Control wrote:
Small shopping Mall, with chain store tenants.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 1:26pm Tipex wrote:
We can't fill the "retail outlets" (aka "shops") we've already got.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 1:47pm answering Sherlock wrote:
Can Lewes really sustain more than one?
On 13 Dec 2013 at 2:44pm bastian wrote:
it was an ugly plan by a group known best for building supermarkets. That isn't good enough for an historic town like this. Bodes well for the reception santon might get.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 3:19pm Clifford wrote:
bastian wrote: 'Bodes well for the reception santon might get.'
My thought too, bastian. Let's hope you're right.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 3:37pm bastian wrote:
Sadly Clifford, clay hill is Santon, now imagine that all over the industrial side of the river, to a height above the existing industrial units and some are flat rooved, nasty!
On 13 Dec 2013 at 3:40pm Andy wrote:
As I said the locals are always very self congratulatory when the first application is rejected. Any planning consultant will tell you that this scheme would likely be rejected. It's all a game by the planning consultants - the next application is the real application.
Personally, i think the building structure is in excellent condition (built on the public purse) and should be re-used/converted into a mix of retail, small offices & housing.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 4:32pm AVOR wrote:
Surely Quora should be made to pay us for the building itself, this money to go into the public purse and is ringfenced.
Whatever they do, someone has to pay us a high lease for the land I hope. We're not selling it freehold to them or anyone are we?
Are they related to any council members?
On 13 Dec 2013 at 8:56pm bastian wrote:
The land was up for grabs for a paultry amount-ask questions if you wish but the answers are not always forth coming. I believe the land was sold at the same time as the water park went through (since collapsed) in Newhaven-all a bit of a rush! and for such small sums of money.
It is intersting that since much building was done in the 1980s the oublic are more likely to speak up about planning, take an interest in the process, now this could be becuse of the internet, or it could be that poeple are concerned about what they see. To me, the various places built in the 80s and 90s in Lewes, though of their time, (take the magistrates ourt and the ambulence station opposite for an example,) they are not that out of keeping with the old town, but this new stuff is to modern in design, it doesn't fit in at all. The new police station for instance, is out of keeping with all the old stuff round it. But it slipped through, didn't it- this gave santon the excuse to say "Lewes is a mixed developement town".
On 13 Dec 2013 at 9:50pm DMY wrote:
The proposal would have created Jobs for the people in the town that would like to work, and also attract visitors to the town to use the shops. Too many NIMBYs.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 10:17pm Thursday's Child wrote:
There is too much of this unimaginative timber-clad new build in the town. It's cheap, but definitely not cheerful (Grange Road, St John St, Baxters, Police Station etc).
Message to planners: STOP destroying our beautiful town and approve only those designs that enhance the existing.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 10:49pm Country Boy wrote:
Thursday's Child - has it occurred to you that the existing buildings were new once!
On 14 Dec 2013 at 5:45am Clifford wrote:
Country Boy - the complaint isn't tat new buildings are new, it is that they seem to be uniformly crap. Something terrible has happened to architecture and design and I suspect it is our old friend 'shareholder value'...
On 14 Dec 2013 at 7:35am Confused wrote:
How about an outlet for selling driftwood bolted together and called furniture or an art studio where an explanation of some of the works would commit most people to a mental home. Lewes is fast becoming a yuppie commune and trying to sell tat in the name of art. Get a real job you lot and give us Lewes back. Personally I think it would make an ideal children's Hospital or maternity unit.
On 14 Dec 2013 at 11:12am Hang um High? wrote:
How about a Stoning Mall where all 'true Lewesians?' can meet and vent their wroth on the people & things that they perceive to be wrong with Lewes today?
Or maybe a Lynching Hall?
Should get a thumbs up from the few bigots on here!
On 14 Dec 2013 at 2:40pm Ars gratia artis wrote:
How about using it as a refuge for the bitter, intolerant, misanthropic, philistine throwbacks on here, such as VoR, Confused and Kronic? They could live in there, with a KFC implant, a betting shop, an extension bar from The Crown, free Daily Mail and Sky Sports on 24/7.
Parents could threaten their kids "Be good or you'll end up in Kronic Towers".
The thumbs up/down voting system on here could be used to sentence Forum denizens to a spell in there, like transportation in the 18C and 19C - a green, eco-friendly, low mendicant-miles solution.