Phoenix Quarter - Imaginative development or planning nightmare?
Last winter, Angel Property presented proposals for redeveloping the Phoenix Industrial Estate at two exhibitions in the old Market Lane Garage. The developer, Charles Style, has bought or obtained options on a significant proportion of the land. Since doing so the estate has been allowed to run down. Style plans to move most of the remaining businesses to the other side of the river.
In the new development, planned by Lewes-born architect, Piers Gough, Angel propose to build 800 flats and small houses, a commercial and retail centre including shops, offices and cafes, a multi-storey car park, a footbridge over the river and a cinema. So, he will knock down some shabby old sheds on a rundown brownfield site and we get much needed housing and a vibrant new commercial centre? All sounds attractive, doesn?t it ? until you consider the implications.
No more industry in Lewes?
Lewes has always been a place where people make things and it?s by no means certain that the industrial estate has come to the end of its useful life. But, if this is the case, shouldn?t we think about all the options for using this land. The developer claims to be consulting the people of Lewes but in reality all he does is justify and defend his very ambitious scheme.
The proposed Phoenix Quarter will increase the population of Lewes by 10%. It will actively seek to attract chain stores. The offices will be aimed at high tech companies. Is this what we really want?
What about a less dense development: three storey housing with riverside pubs and local shops that service that neighbourhood? Instead of undermining the High Street, that would help to rejuvenate it. Or, if the only way the cost of flood defences and land decontamination can be met is by over-development, what about letting the area revert to marsh land? If we should never have built on the flood plain in the first place, maybe we shouldn?t be re-building in an estuary at a time of rising sea levels?
We don?t have the answers but what we do know is that someone should be asking the questions.
Too high, too dense?
The average height of the proposed buildings will be 4 storeys. In fact since much of the housing has ground floor level parking underneath it, the buildings will be effectively an average of 5 storeys. The highest building will be 8 storeys in a town where almost all the buildings in the centre are 3 storeys. In our opinion, the Phoenix Quarter will be intrusively high from neighbouring parts of the Town obscuring views of the Castle and it will compromise the view of the Town from the surrounding downland in the South Downs National Park.
But people need housing
They do indeed - and it is to his credit that the developer has promised that he will provide the 25% affordable housing that Lewes District Council require -or as near to it as he can afford. The density of housing will be several times greater than in the centre of the Town. We have to ask if this ambitious city style development is not only inappropriate for a small market town, but also if it likely to turn us into any other dismal, overcrowded commuter suburb with no character, insufficient schools and inadequate medical facilities.
Traffic and parking
Everyone agrees that Lewes has a traffic problem. But who can seriously imagine that introducing another possible 1,500 residents,
800 workers and all those new shoppers will solve this problem? The Phoenix site is essentially a cul-de-sac next to one of the worst traffic pinchpoints in Lewes. This problem can only increase the frequency with which traffic jams up in the Town. Can the improvements at Beddingham really cure all our current ills along with this new congestion?
And if they can?t, what?s Plan B? Another bridge over the river? A spur off the by-pass? Re-opening of South Street? We can?t see into the future and neither can the developer. But, he won?t care as he will have made his profit and we will be left to sort out the mess.
Angel Property plan to provide a parking place for 75% of the residential units on the development. They will also build a 480 space multi-storey car park by the Phoenix Bridge. There are indications that the car park will be insufficient for the needs of the Phoenix commercial centre: office workers and visitors. There are no plans to replace the parking for Zone B that will be lost and since the ESCC parking scheme does not allow for restrictions in issuing permits, there will be nothing to prevent residents of the Phoenix Quarter applying for up to two permits per household. On top of that, the Council have sold North Street car park to the Police and plan to sell the car park at the top of Little East Street. So, the multi-storey car park will be full and parking can only get worse. That?s quite a price to pay for a cinema and another branch of Starbucks!
New town centre
The new commercial centre with its shops, offices and cinema will be linked to Tesco by a footbridge across the River. Some local businesses imagine they will prosper from a 10% increase in the population but any business that faces competition from national or multi national chains won?t stand a chance.
So what will happen to the High Street? For years we?ve fought off chain stores but now we are to welcome them with open arms. It?s argued that if we let chains in at the bottom of town, they?ll leave the independents alone. If this does happen we?ll be the first town in the country where the chains don?t just take over. The reason for this is simple. Chains will pay higher rents so the commercial estate agents love them. As soon as one or two arrive, the agents talk up the potential rents and local shops are priced out. Already at the top of the High St the agents lure new tenants on the basis that they?ll be close to Caffé Nero, Fat Face, Ask and Monsoon. No mention of the handy proximity to Capriccio, Renwick Clarke or Mr Caitlin and small wonder as they?ll be history once we become another clone town.
So what do we want to do about this?
First of all there?s no point leaving it to our elected and professional planners on Lewes District Council. They?ve bungled so many planning decisions lately that we can?t rely on them to do the right thing. Look at the planning catastrophe on the site of the old scout hut in St John Street or the new Mediterranean-style houses in Albion Street. The same developer has now bought the bus station, so presumably we can expect another defiantly ?uncompromising? glass and tin horror., Did you spot the application for 125 houses and offices in Malling Brooks? No? They slipped that one through in August when no one was looking.
It shouldn?t be left to individuals to fight developers to preserve this Town; but it?s necessary if the planners appear to be on the other side. So, be prepared to use all the weapons in a democratic armoury: lobbying, petitions, marches, demonstrations and letters .The Lewes Matters website (www.lewesmatters.co.uk) has been a particularly effective forum for moving the Phoenix Quarter up to the top of the agenda. Once the formal application is submitted we?ll be letting you know how to get your voice heard.
Demand a proper planning process
Before any major development, it is usual for planners to produce a planning brief and to consult the community and planning professionals on it. This has not happened for the Phoenix site, Why? If there is a proper brief, developer?s proposals can then respond to what the Council and the community are prepared to support and not the other way round.
The council may argue that we already have a Local Plan. Well, it?s clearly not working. We need coherent, locally agreed decisions which look at the town as a whole, not just a license for piecemeal asset stripping.
Lewes is one of the few towns in the south east which has so far not been ruined by over-development. But for how long? Apart from the Phoenix, what about the plans for Tesco, the Lewes House site, the bus station and Baxters? Anthony Dicks has called for a Conservation Area Advisory Committee to be set up like the one that is so effective in Chichester. We are calling for this to be done with some urgency. We can?t afford to keep getting it wrong.
Is allowing profit-driven property developers to dictate the terms the best way to get it right?
We don?t think so. Keep up-to-date with the Lewes Matters website www.lewesmatters.co.uk, write to the Sussex Express and your councillors. We can make a difference and will do if we demand a proper planning process which is forced to take account of local voices.
As you will have gathered, we?ve set up Phoenix Action to resist this development. If you would like to help go to our Join Us page and enter you details.