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...
Re:Council refuse to sell land - 2007/04/15 18:12Oops sorry about the typo in my last post, this was written on a hand held email device
| | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum.
Harry
Re:Council refuse to sell land - 2007/04/15 21:48I'm not quite clear what Mr Style means by saying 'we have never made a secret' of the fact that Angel doesn't own all the land. I imagine it has come as a surprise to manjy people. I can't see that Angel have ever mentioned that quite a bit of what they are proposing (particularly such sweeties as a cinema and a multi-storey car park) would be on land they do not own and have no certainty of ever owning.
The new Phoenix Quarter website is now up and running - will Angel put something in their drawings distinguishing land they do own from land they don't own to give the people of Lewes a clearer picture?
| | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum.
Ray Buxton
Re:Council refuse to sell land - 2007/04/15 22:36I'm new to this debate, so I may not be aware of some ground that has already been covered in depth - apologies if so. However, there seem to be two glaring issues here...
1) A massive conflict of interest - the council owns land about which it will be making commercial planning decisions. Is this normal?
2) A developer who hopes to gain permission for a development which he may have absolutely no intention of developing in full (because he doesn't own the land). Thus he can promise anything and then shrug his shoulders later and say "it isn't my land, and never was, so how can I be held responsible?".
Will someone be kind enough to explain to me how this can be? Unless I've totally misinterpreted something, this whole debate, which has now being going on for at least a couple of years, is a corrupt farce and should be exposed as such.
| | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum.
Ray Buxton
Re:Council refuse to sell land - 2007/04/15 23:07As it was mentioned, I looked up the November Check List document...
Quote "As Angel Property own all the land on the riverfront that part of the development will be tied to all of the flood defences for the whole development including phase two as well as Cell 5. All flood defences will be put in during this phase, it is not possible to flood defend part of the site in isolation. This phase will also provide the riverfront walk and associated landscaping, the footbridge across The Ouse, the slipway, boat store, improvements to the Pells Pool and affordable housing up to 25% of the dwellings provided on this part of the site.
The second phase planning application includes the land currently owned by Lewes District Council and various other landowners, the community gain attached to that part of the development would be covered by a separate section 106 agreement which would be signed before the planning permission for the construction of this phase can be implemented. The community gains include the cinema, art gallery, crèche, medical centre and affordable housing up to 25% of the dwellings provided on that part of the development."
In the light of the current discussion I read this to mean that Angel Property would not be bound to any of the second phase "goodies". In fact, nobody would, which seems to make a nonsense of the whole affair. True or false?
| | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum.
charles style
Re:Council refuse to sell land - 2007/04/16 09:27Ray, there is a fundametal misunderstanding here. The Phoenix Quarter proposals are for an outline planning application for a development framework. Any land which has not been acquired by Angel Property at the time of the planning application will be dealt with by a seperate planning application because we cannot sign a s106 agreement on land we do not own. The idea of a masterplan is to ensure that there is an overal strategy for a large piece of land like this, it is not at all unusual for masterplans to actually be delivered by more than one developer and we have never claimed that we would develop the entire site ourselves, in fact we have made this very clear from the outset in all our dialogue with Lewes Matters and others. The Lewes District Council own some land and may or may not wish to sell it either to Angel Property or to other developers, as I understand it no decision has been made on this, though I will be seeking clarification of the intentions of the Council today. In their recent newsletter the council posed the question. "can Angel Property apply for planning permission for land that it does not own? " and answered it, "yes, the law allows anyone to put in a planning application even if they do not own the land". However as this is a development framework for a masterplan we intend to agree a contributions framework with Lewes District Council prior to making the planning application to ensure that contributions are spread fairly accross the site. this was mentiond in the Phoenix Quarter Checkliist. "however the planning gains will all be covered in the outline planning applications, and the obligations will be balanced fairly across the site by a contributions framework which will be agreed at the outset with Lewes District Council". We also made it clear that there would be two phases each with it's own planning obligations. Also quoting from the checklist, "The planning gains that are available from this development include, flood protection for the development and cell 5, the Pelham Terrace area, riverfront walk, footbridge, slipway, boat store, affordable housing, crèche, medical centre, upgrades to the facilities at the Pells Pool, cinema and art gallery. These will all be costed into the viability analysis and will be subject to the section 106 agreements that will be attached to the planning applications, as will the affordable housing contributions and other contibutions such as to Highways, schools, medical facilities, recycling etc. There will be two phases to the development and two planning applications, one for land owned by Angel Property and one for land owned by other landowners. Each planning application will allow for specific community gains to be delivered in that part of the development. For the sake of clarity we will post on this website and the Phoenix Quarter website a phasing diagramme which shows which parcels of land are owned by Angel Property or which we expect to have acquired prior to the planning application being lodged and which are in what is described as phase two, i.e the land owned by Lewes District Council and others. We have already met with the Council's solicitor to commence agreeing the nature of and content of s106 agreements and a phasing and implementation strategy. What is important is to ensure that the masterplan proposals can deliver a mix of uses which are considered to be needed and that the legal agreements which govern their delivery are well drafted to ensure their delivery. We have been involved in the Vision Statement exercise with all the other Stakeholder groups and the aim of this is to ensure that whatever Vision the Council produce can be delivered. We hope that it provides a mix of uses which, again quoting from the Phoenix Quarter Checklist, "should provide a synergy and achieve a critical mass that allows a thriving new addition to the town. It should provide jobs and living space for future generations of existing residents of the town as well as attracting new residents and new businesses, visitors and tourists to Lewes. "
| | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum.
John Stockdale
Re:Council refuse to sell land - 2007/04/16 10:52Charles, I'm a little confused by all this. I understand that (1) you are not giving up and (2) the masterplan, if approved, will apply to the whole site whoever owns the land.
As I understand it under PPS25 the flood defences are not planning gain but a prerequisite to making the site viable for development. Maybe I'm mistaken.
Clearly, if you own all the land for phase 1, you will be able to ensure the development and the planning gain associated with that part of the site is delivered - and you can pass on the liability to others if you sell some or all of it on.
What's not clear is what happens to the Phase 2 land that you don't own. If the other landowners don't like the masterplan can they refuse to implement it? Or will they be forced to deliver Phase 2 including the planning gain associated with that?
| | You must login if you wish to contribute to this forum.
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.
