jstockdale
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Re:South Downs Road development - 2007/08/18 10:10
The following advice is being offered to local residents bordering on the development by Lewes Flood Action. Anyone else with a concern about the precedent this sets should join in too.
On 1 August Lewes’ Planning Committee gave final approval for the building of 125 flats and houses at South Downs Road, Malling Brooks.
Are they barking?
They must be! The site is on the floodplain. It flooded to a depth of 11ft in 2000. It’s protected by the new flood defences but according to Government projections on sea level rise, the defences will cease to be effective during the lifetime of the properties. If the Government’s current guidelines on building on the floodplain had been applied, this project would have been stopped.
What a stink!
The site is also where the Town dumped all its rubbish in the 70s, so that will all have to go to take up the last remaining space at Beddingham. Local residents have real concerns about the methane gas there.
So, why did they approve it?
The officers enthusiastically endorsed the scheme because the original outline approval was given under the old rules on building on the floodplain – and once given, the officers believed, the developer was entitled to build. But stricter new guidelines had already been published which is why Lewes Flood Action is asking the Government to ‘call in’ the application and review it.
But more houses has to be good, doesn’t it?
Yes, people need homes. But not one of this 125 unit development is ‘affordable’ despite the Council’s rule that 25% of any new development should be for people on the waiting list and for ‘key workers’ like teachers and nurses. What’s needed locally is 3 bed houses for families - not two bed flats for incomers that are beyond the price range of locals and uninsurable for flood risk at normal rates.
Sounds like a complete cock up then?
That’s right – a triumph of bureaucracy over commonsense. Lewes Flood Action have written to the Yvette Cooper MP, the Housing Minister asking her to give councils discretion to stop building in the floodplain until the lessons from the floods this summer have been learned. Unfortunately, our Planning Committee didn’t have the bottle to stand up to the officers and refuse or defer making a decision - to give the Minister time to reply.
Is there anything we can do about this?
Well yes there is. You too can ask the Government to call in the application.
Write to
Jonathan Shaw MP
Minister for the South East
DEFRA
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR
quoting the reference no (LW 07/0325) and ask him to call in the decision because the Environment Agency should have applied the new guidance on building on the flood plain (PPS 25) to the application and if they had done so they would have advised Lewes District Council to refuse permission.
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