We now have an RSS News Feed. If you install the Google Destop (requires Windows Vista/XP/2000 SP3+ or Mac) and a news reader gadget such as OneFeed, you can have the very latest Lewes Matters news in real-time on your desktop!
And the following feed is for the latest forum posts...
relocation Lewes car valeting - 2006/04/04 19:51I have been a tenant at Riverside Ind Estate for the last sixteen years now.My business has grown over the years through hard work and doing my best to give a first class service to all of my customers and I feel I do give Lewes a valuable service.I am extremely concerned about my future as so are my neighbours because there are no small industrial units in Lewes.The only units available are three times the price of our units.As for our present Landlord,Angel Properties who became our landlord in 2004 have never offerd us any alternative space as they have claimed.I have tried to contact Angel on many occasions but I never receive a return call.The only things we know about the Phoenix Quarter is what we read in the papers.Still,this only goes to prove that us small businessmen who help to make Lewes the town it is really do not matter to the likes of the phoenix developers.
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Brian Smith
Lewes Car Body Centre - 2006/04/04 21:21I would like to know whether Angel properties are sticking to their statement that "all businesses in the proposed evelopement area have been offered alternative properties". Neither I nor any of my immediate business neighbours have been offered alternatives and indeed have not even been contacted by Angel Properties even though we are tenants of theirs.
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Will Rogers
Re:relocation Lewes car valeting - 2006/04/05 13:18I have a retail business in Lewes importing Polish pottery and have had a warehouse on North Street for nearly six years. I have not been contacted by Angel Properties concerning the possibility of relocating in Lewes or anywhere. The only information I get about the Phoenix Quarter is from reading the Sussex Express - and you have to question their use of the adjective "dilapidated" when they refer to our industrial units. Is the Sussex Express wishing us away?
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charles style
Re:relocation Lewes car valeting - 2006/04/15 19:32I have today spoken to Phil Butterphil, from Lewes car valeting, Brian Smith from Lewes car body and Dave Ryan from North Street garage. We are meeting on Tuesday. As it happens we are also meeting with A.T.S tyres on Tuesday who are also located on North Street as we are planning to create a car related business area in the Malling Brooks scheme which will allow all these businesses which are so important to Lewes and have been here a long time to have a future new home and location from which to trade if and when our plans for the Phoenix Quarter go ahead. I have apologised to these gentlemen for not contacting them earlier, this is not because we are a faceless corporation that does not care about the future of small local businesses , but because we have been snowed under with work to do with the preperation of our planning applications. It makes sense to locate all the car related trades in one location as they all give each other businesses and we hope this can work.
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marco crivello
Re:relocation Lewes car valeting - 2006/04/17 19:35Lewes Matters naturally welcomes Angel's commitment to now include some car related businesses in a relocation package to the proposed Malling Brook site.Thus far we have resisted influencing this forum with any 'editorial' interference, however we feel strongly that aspects of the developer's announcement could usefully be clarified.
We hope the following will place the developers's posting in context.
1/ In a meeting with Charles Style at the end of March,it was clearly stated that inclusion of car related businesses on the Malling Brook site was not part of his plans. We pointed out that these businesses were highly valued by the community not least because of their proximity to the town centre where vehicles could easily be left and collected. All three traders mentioned in the posting cited this as a key factor in their viability and the consequences of relocation outside the town in tandem with much higher rents and rates would undermine that viability.
2/Lewes Matters have been listening to a number of independent traders since before Christmas-including tenants not in car related activities, who still remain uncertain as to their position regarding alternative premises given the critical shortage of affordable commercial space in Lewes ,should this scheme be approved.We were approached at the beginning of April by the businesses who posted comments on our discussion forum.Following a meeting with them we decided to forward their concerns to Kevin Scott, the vice chair of the Chamber.We were glad to hear that Kevin brought up their concerns with the developer at a meeting in Shellys on Wednesday, which appears to have resulted in a change of policy regarding some of the small independent traders.
3/ "I have tried to contact Angel on many occasions but I never receive a return call" Phil Butterfill Lewes Car Valeting.
Whilst we welcome the opening of dialogue with these three businesses,it seems somewhat disingenuous to claim that past failure to contact them is due to hectic preparations for outline planning permission.As landlords to two of these traders since 2004, Angel Property would have been fully aware of the nature of these businesses while forming a strategy for the proposed Malling Brooks site, as well as conducting a viability study for the entire Phoenix industrial estate.In the meantime the developer has been readily available to meet with numerous parties to discuss all aspects of his proposals.It is also fair to point out that for some businesses on the Phoenix estate negotiations on relocation are already at an advanced stage.
Lewes Matters appreciate that aspects of relocation may be commercially sensitive, but the townspeople need to be offered a clear and consistent framework regarding relocating existing companies,so that they can assess this component as a part of the whole proposal.
4 Aside from these developments we continue to collect information on the businesses via a specifcally commissioned business questionnaire as well as our broader questionnaire which slowly but surely we are delivering to as many households as possible.The respones we are getting back are proving very valuable in giving a mor accurate reading of the towns views and concerns,so if you have not yet filled one in....it only takes a couple of minutes!
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charles style
Re:relocation Lewes car valeting - 2006/04/18 04:38I appreciate Marco getting involved in this matter and do not consider that he has compromised his editorial independence in doing so. We have been negotiating for some time with some of the larger businesses on the Phoenix Industrial Estate to design buildings to accomodate them in Malling Brooks and we are close to agreeing these deals. A new fire station has also been designed for Malling Brooks. I will admit we have been remiss in not contacting all the smaller businesses earlier. We will now recitfy this situation, and will be contacting all the remaining occupiers that have not already been contacted by us this week to discuss their needs. I am confident that all the existing businesses on the Phoenix Estate can be accomodated either in purpose built new space that we will be creating in Malling Brooks or in vacant industrial space that exists on the other estates in Lewes. There is currently at least 60,000 sq ft of vacant space in Cliffe Industrial Estate and Malling Industrial Estate. I appreciate that the vacant space that is currently available will not be suitable for all businesses either because the units are the wrong size or because they are too expensive or in the wrong location for their businesses. It should be understood by the townspeople that we do accept that some businesses need cheap space and small unit sizes and we will be building space to accomodate them. The townspeople also need to understand that a lot of the property on Phoenix is rented at sub market rents, because we cannot offer any security of tenure as redevelopment is planned and as a lot of the units are inefficient or poorly constructed or both therefore the rents per sq ft compared to a new efficient purpose built unit has to be lower. I am confident that it will be possible for us to accomodate most of the existing businesses at rents they can afford, or that we will sell them freeholds of their new premises , which I understand is preferrable to them. The others will be able to relocate elsewhere in Lewes or in the district. We are aware that some of the services that currently are on the site need to be near to the town and would not be suitable to be relocated to Newhaven for example. It should also be pointed out that due to the fact that our mixed use scheme includes a lot of new commercial uses in the Phoenix Quarter the net result of the proposal is at least 800 new jobs for Lewes and a lot of jobs in sectors not currently available in Lewes. There will be no loss of jobs in sectors currently provided for. We have been very open with the Lewes Chamber of Commerce and Lewes District Council about our strategy and hope to be able to make a major positive impact on the future economic viability and vitality of the area. We look forward to seeing the results of both surveys undertaken by Lewes Matters and hope their results will be useful in us being able to create a new Quarter that fulfills the needs of the people and the businesses of Lewes. We will divulge all the information regarding the relocation of all existing businesses at the earliest possible opportunity.
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Dear site visitor at IP address 38.103.63.61. We were forced to make it necessary for you to register and login before making forum postings because of the constant flood of unwanted and often abusive material that was being uploaded by anonymous spammers from all over the world. I'm sure you know the sort of stuff - viagra ads and the like - what a bore! But you can of course read the postings without logging in, and in any case it only takes a couple of minutes to register - you're not losing your privacy, but you're keeping out the spammers. So do please register and continue using the forum - we need your input! Thanks, Lewes Matters Admin.
