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Town Council objects to North St planning applicat

On 15 Apr 2015 at 10:57am smiler wrote:

At the planning committee meeting last night, Lewes Town Council agreed to object to the Santon and Lewes District Council (LDC) planning application for North Street.
Why? Displacement of businesses on site would lead to the loss of jobs and the loss of the economic cluster in manufacturing, making and creative industries.
The 'affordable' housing would be unaffordable unless clearly defined as at social rent level. LDC's own housing needs assessment of 2014 states that no part of the District is affordable to people on low incomes unless available at social rent levels (43% of market rent).

On 15 Apr 2015 at 1:19pm Merlin Milner wrote:

Just to be clear, the comments above are what someone has reported that the Town Council said. They reflect in part some of what we said. Our full comments will be available soon.

On 15 Apr 2015 at 3:58pm tom wrote:

Lewes District Council (LDC) have little influence on the outcome.
South Downs National Park Authority are the ultimate decision makers.

On 15 Apr 2015 at 5:03pm Belladonna wrote:

I'm very pleased to have my fears proved wrong and that town council have objected. I look forward to seeing the reasoning in full

On 15 Apr 2015 at 8:20pm Leveller wrote:

Do you know what, i'm getting sick to the back teeth with this vocal minority. By the time anything's done with the North Street area and the area by Mayhew way, even affordable housing will be way out of EVERYONE'S reach.
Get a grip you lot, shanty town or vibrant community area. Overgrown field of brambles or decent housing.
Un-f***ing-believable

On 16 Apr 2015 at 7:53am Mavis wrote:

I agree tom, it's not helpful having different 'councils' interfering in matters they have no real power for. After all aren't all major decisions made in Europe anyway these days ? Currently that area is a disgrace, and being sub let at exorbitant rents to end users anyway. Great Current MP action on this, I don't think so. Any other County town would welcome a quay side development, that's why Lewes has never embraced progress, and change. Leveller someone needs to shake these people into the 21st C !

On 20 Apr 2015 at 8:00am Merlin Milner wrote:

Leveller & Mavis. Perhaps if you had come to our meeting you would have had heard our comments and perhaps we could have heard yours. We were not against a development there and a quayside development would be great. However nearly 80 jobs would be lost (including those that will move to Malling Brooks), lack of definition of 'affordable', car parking and other important points meant that we objected. This is probably the most significant development in Lewes for decades and we must ensure that it is the best we can get.