Phoenix Industrial Estate redevelopment plans set to face major setback

The South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) is set to issue a report recommending deferral to the planning committee for the redevelopment of the North Street Industrial Estate on October 12, while outstanding “issues” with the project are resolved.

Tim Slaney, the director of planning at the SDNPA, writes in the report: “The overall ambitions of the applicant and the general approach they are taking to create a ‘sustainable development’ is highly commendable.

"However, it is in the execution of, and the detailed matters associated with, the actual scale and form of the proposed development that means Officers are currently unable to fully support the application.

"The very real overall potential benefits the scheme does offer are not sufficient to outweigh the current significant and important concerns, which are shared by other key parties.”

The Park Authority's concerns relate to areas such as inadequate sustainable construction, insufficient affordable housing provision and worries the scheme will have a significant impact on the town’s highway capacity and safety issues.

Human Nature, the company behind the proposals, say the report is ‘out-of-date, out-of-touch, irresponsible, dismissive and contradictory’.

Jonathan Smales, Founder & CEO of Human Nature, said: “The South Downs Park planning team is once again displaying casual disregard for the people of Lewes, following the debacle of consent given to Santon’s profoundly unsustainable and unloved North Street Quarter – a scheme so dull and manifestly unviable no developer in the UK wanted to build it.

“The officers’ report to their planning committee on the proposed Phoenix scheme is a disgrace: out-of-date, out-of-touch, irresponsible, dismissive and contradictory. Their grasp of development economics and understanding of what it takes to address the climate emergency is risible.

"If Phoenix falls next week the Park’s Local Plan is in tatters and its reputation will follow suit.”

Plans to redevelop the Lewes North Street Quarter began in 2015. Santon North Street Ltd and Lewes District Council, the joint-owners of the site, submitted a ‘hybrid planning application’ to deliver 416 new homes; alongside a number of other proposals including 475 registered full-time jobs, a public square, cafés and new riverside walkways.

In April 2021, the eco-developer Human Nature acquired part of the site and submitted their altered proposal for planning permission in the early part of 2022.

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Following a public consultation period, Human Nature submitted an updated proposal to the Park Authority in September of this year.

The changes predominately focused on creating the opportunity to retain more of the existing trees, following criticism over the initial plans to cut down most of the shrubbery on the estate and along the Phoneix Causeway.

Jonathan said: “After compromise upon compromise, years of negotiations and several millions of pounds of additional investment, the award-winning Phoenix – widely regarded as the greenest and most sustainable large-scale neighbourhood plan in the country in response to the climate and nature emergencies – is at risk of being undermined.”

The SPNP will announce their decision on the development next week and Human Nature say it is time for the planning committee ‘to stand up and be counted’.

Jonathan said: “The planning team’s approach is disabling rather than enabling. They see Lewes as a museum of architectural curiosities rather than as a living, breathing, adaptive place. They see a derelict former industrial site as a ‘riparian’ landscape, whereas everyday we see acres upon acre of cement, twisted steel and missed opportunity.

“Following the loss of the bus station this is nothing less than insult to injury for Lewes. What’s it to be: another generation before the Phoenix finds new life? It’s a travesty of shoddy planning policy and practice by a team that has the wrong mindset and is out of its depth.

“Unless the planning committee stands up to be counted on October 12, it is time for planning powers to be returned to local people in democratically elected bodies who understand their responsibilities, listen carefully to their local communities and are accountable to them."