Lewes Coalition
Promoting Participation in PlanningAbout us
We are a group of groups. We meet monthly to share information and to help each other in our common objective: to support new development that enhances our town and to challenge planning applications for developments which we believe to be inappropriate.
What do we stand for?
We believe that new development in Lewes should enhance our historic built environment and support its current and future inhabitants.
We
- Support new development whose design conforms to Conservation Area principles and which respects and compliments our townscape in its scale and style
- Support development which improves the quality, sustainability and affordability of housing
- Oppose inappropriate development on the floodplain
- Oppose unnecessary demolition of historic buildings
The backstory
In April 2008 Jenny Mumford put up a protest poster on the front wall of her home in Lansdown Place. She reflected the local mood of exasperation and despair that well reasoned objections and less destructive alternatives had been ignored in the Lewes House site planning consultation process.
Locals deplored the development plan which required the demolition of part of the ancient Church Twitten wall in order to create new openings, and permanent destruction of its iconic character by cutting through the twitten and overshadowing it with 3 storey blocks of flats.
Lewes District Council planning department threatened Jenny with court action, and hundreds of people joined a march to support her. From this upsurge of protest The Coalition was born.
In the 2 years since our inception much has changed. In Spring 2008 it seemed that development in Lewes was unstoppable, and many people were concerned at the pace and scale of expansion. In Spring 2010 the economic climate has curtailed the development frenzy: we are now in The National Park, we have a Strategic Flood Risk Assessment that has defined key parts of the centre of the Town as ‘functional floodplain’ and flood defences have been improved. Lewes Coalition is represented on the Lewes Conservation Area Advisory Group which has been formed and is supported by the Lewes District Council to advise on all planning applications in Lewes’s two conservation areas before they go to the planning committee.
The Coalition is now a well established and increasingly informed group who engages on a number of levels with planners and developers. It is too late to save Church Twitten, but we hope that the lessons that were learnt in our efforts to save it can be put to good use in helping to shape the future development of Lewes.
Current priorities?
It is no time for complacency. The lull in development activity gives us an opportunity to review what sites have already been approved for future development, and those which are due to come up for renewal. The threat of over-development has not gone away.
As long as land has planning permission for development it can be developed without further debate. A number of sites in Lewes are already earmarked for major development. When the planning permission comes up for renewal after 3 years, we have a chance to re-examine permissions – but it is very likely that central government will waive the 3 year limit on planning permissions as part of its kickstart programme to stimulate economic growth.
Lewes remains a prime target for developers, and is even more attractive in a difficult financial climate. One danger is that developers will propose cheaper and smaller units in order to secure their profits in a difficult market.
( for example phase 2 of the Nurseries which will now be much more cramped living accommodation following the post credit crunch planning re- application – it will now be what has become termed nationally as ‘rabbit hutch development’)
These are national if not international issues – local communities need to act in order to shape the future development of their environment if they want to avoid it being shaped by profiteers.