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Re:Car Free Development - 2006/05/01 12:49Elinor, on the one hand there is a not bad public transport system, on the other the system can be improved and I know there are ideas of reopening the line to Tunbridge Wells that might come to something in the future. There are also traffic improvements in the pipeline, including the much needed Beddingham Bridge, which I am led to believe will do a lot to improve the situation through the Cuilfail tunnel at peak times. Then there is the actual traffic that our proposals will create, these are being considered by East Sussex traffic engineers and will be tested by using the transport model they have undertaken . They will than be able to advise Lewes District Council if our proposals regarding car parking and the ability of new owners and visitors to the project to have a car parking space are reasonable and acceptable as far as they are concerned.
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Elinor
Re:Car Free Development - 2006/05/02 18:27Mr Style, what you say may or may not happen, but it hasn't happened and you surely cannot base an arguement on what might happen. The facts are that the bus service is apalling, and the bus station is shutting, trains don't operate reliably outside commutor hours, if at all, and there are no park and ride schemes. It looks like you don't use public transport in Lewes, so I can forgive you for not knowing. You will have to excuse me if I am irritated by any suggestion, either yours, oonsultants, or planners that say that Public Transport is good. It isn't, and they clearly don't use it much either!
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charles style
Re:Car Free Development - 2006/05/02 18:40Elinor, it is true to say that i do not use the bus service, I do however use the train service and have found it to be pretty good. I have not heard that the bus station is to close, the last comment I have heard on this was from John Robbins of East Sussex traffic engineers a few months ago who said that the bus staion would stay open even though the maintenence depot has closed. In one way the whole discussion as to whether the public transport system here is good enough was started because I said that I thought it unlikely that a totally car free development at Phoenix would be viable, so the fact that you may consider the public transport system appauling rather proves my point. My feeling is that it is not bad and is certainly a lot better than in a lot of areas in the District but that it could be better.
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Dea Campbell
Re:Car Free Development - 2006/05/03 11:01I am now a bit confused about Charles Style's attitude to car-free development. At first he says it is 'a nice idea', now he says it is akin to discriminating against immigrants. I wonder if that is because the idea is now being seriously discussed. Maybe we should ask the thousands of people in Europe who have made the choice to live in car-free developments because they value the peace and quiet, the danger-free, fume-free, noise-free environment and the wonderful sense of community, how they feel about giving up their right to have a car. The point is that many people aspire to live without a car, but don't yet have the opportunity. I am not really surprised that Charles is now making the claim that no-one who has a car has the right to be in favour of car-free development. That rules out most of the people of Lewes, and if taken seriously would effectively silence this thread of the opposition, just as he tried to silence John Stockdale by threatening to sue him. I am not a politician, or even an activist of any kind, just an ordinary person who would like to point out that there is a perfectly viable alternative, which Europe has adopted enthusiastically and which could work here. I am a little bit saddened at being called a hypocrite by Mr. Style because my own green credentials are not perfect, as I freely admit. I have no wish to impose anything on Lewes and no power to do so, unlike Mr. Style. I just wonder what high criteria we would have to live up to be accorded the right to an opinion, in his moral scheme: Can people not oppose the expansion of Tesco unless they have never shopped there, or the incinerator unless they have never thrown anything away? That would certainly make things nice and quiet. I would just ask people to read the report I was moved to prepare, after contemplating the effects of hundreds more cars in Lewes - follow the links, and get involved in the debate. We now have a choice as to whether we want a car-heavy development in Lewes, or to reject that option and work towards a car-free or low car one. If nobody agrees with me that it is a vision worth working towards, fine, I will accept that and keep quiet, but don't let anyone tell you that you don't have the right to an opinion.
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charles style
Re:Car Free Development - 2006/05/03 13:28Dea, I have never said you do not have a right to an opinion nor have I said John Stockdale has no right to offer his views, in the case of Johns views I merely asked him to get his facts right and I feel we both now understand each other better now after my threat to sue him later retacted. I very much respect your views and am merely pointing out that in my view it is an idea that will seriously undermine the viability of the development and that we would not be able to accept. However we will give the use of car clubs as a means to reduce car ownership serious consideration and in fact were already going to have car clubs in our development. The use of the car in new developments is controlled by rules set down by East Sussex County Council and we will abide by those rules. We are willing to consider all sorts of means to make the development sustainable and we wish it to be an excellent example of sustainable development. In our view the requirement for sustainable development does not extend to a blanket ban on car ownership for all new developments and we have merely pointed out the obvious anomoly between existing residents who have a car trying to enforce a requirement that does not exist in the planning laws that all new residents and businesses be disallowed car ownership.
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elinor
Re:Car Free Development - 2006/05/03 17:49Mr Style,
'I think now we understand each other after my threat to sue him, now retracted'
your comment is apalling, threatening and completely contradicts your claim to be the caring sharing friendly face of developing. I don't think you will find a single decent person in Lewes who supports it.
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