Phoenix Action Newsletter
October 2007-10-17
Reading the Sussex Express over the Summer you would be forgiven for thinking that Charles Style has given up thinking about developing North St. This is far from the truth however as detailed negotiations continue between the developer and the Planning Department.
Minutes of the meetings between LDC Planners and Angel Property show that following Ann De Vecchi’s bombshell that the Council wouldn’t sell any of its land in North Street to the developer, Angel have had to go back to the drawing board and they are preparing a revised master plan for ‘The Phoenix Quarter’. All residential accommodation may be above flood levels (‘may’ isn’t good enough, Charles, and anyway, we thought it always was going to be) and retail space is ‘under review’ which presumably means it disappears.
The allocation of affordable housing is also very vague: 25% rising in the direction of 40% is under discussion but nothing is definite. Also none of the finance is in place for it. LDC should note this is how Angel ran rings round Southwark on their last development at the Jam Factory where so far they have delivered 0% of their promised social housing.
The plan for moving existing businesses in the Phoenix to a site in Malling Brooks is more advanced. But, the Fire Brigade appear to be digging their heels in and refusing to move to a site that flooded to 11ft in 2000. Their rules require that new fire stations has to be built on land that hasn’t flooded in 1000 years. However, what would seem to be a bit of a problem for the developer is probably not beyond the creative ability of planning consultants.
The Council is in the process of producing a Strategic Flood Risk Assessment defining the threat to the Town and the Council’s policy for dealing with it. This is needed for the Council to consider any application on the flood plain. The Assessment probably won’t be available before next April but Angel are urging LDC to short circuit the process by following some precedent in Bristol.
Meanwhile key traffic, car parking and sustainability issues are still a long way off being resolved.
All is certainly not quiet either in Southwark where Lewes journalist David Burke has been following the progress of Angel Property’s flagship development since 2001.
He reports:
After a dramatic five hour public meeting, packed with residents and the developer's friends, Southwark Council have rejected Angel Property's bid to build a large block of flats at the Jam Factory (block E).
They retrospectively approved Angel's development of four other blocks (A-D) only on condition that Angel turn the site of the proposed new building into a park. Contrary to what the developer hoped, all the affordable housing must go into block D, which has sat empty for years while Angel pressed for the chance to sell it at market rates.
Committee members accepted the residents' arguments that the proposed new building would block sunlight and that the unauthorised density of existing buildings left residents without sufficient amenity space.
Lewes was mentioned. Cllr Gordon Nardell asked Charles Style about an interview he did here in which he directly contradicted something he had told Southwark Planning Committee members in June.
Read an article about the meeting:
http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/2969
Listen to the interview here:
http://www.pastdevelopments.com/charles_style_interview.html
A spokesperson for the Jam Factory Residents Association makes clear the lesson Lewes residents can draw from last night's meeting:
If that room had been empty perhaps things would have gone differently. But no committee can ignore 50 angry residents and the kind of sustained involvement we've had.
The message for Lewes is clear; grant Angel Property planning permission and we too can look forward to protracted legal wrangles for many years to come.