Lewes Core Strategy Update

The progress of the Lewes District Core Strategy has undergone a further delay. There was a public consultation on the proposed submission version back in January-March 2013, but while the consultation responses have been published, there has not as yet been any formal response. The District Council and SDNP Authority have participated, with others, in a new survey of housing need in the Sussex Coastal region, and further progress has been deferred while the Council considers how to respond to it

Lewes District does not currently have an adopted Core Strategy, so will be vulnerable to development applications after the end of this month. One such greenfield application (in Wivelsfield parish, on the edge of Haywards Heath) was listed this week; another (Ringmer parish) appears to be imminent.

Newhaven incinerator

The incinerator is now operational.

Peacehaven wastewater treatment plant

This giant facility has now disappeared underground, and will soon be processing Brighton's sewage.

Lewes District Core Strategy

Planners have been considering the consultation responses to the draft version of the Core Strategy, plus the implications of the NPPF, for almost a year. The submission version, containing urban and rural housing targets, is now believed to be imminent (expected to be published mid-October).

Proposed Clay Hll reservoir

CPRE argued strongly and effectively against the inclusion of the proposed Clay Hill water storage reservoir, near Ringmer, at the Inquiry into the 2009 South East Water WRMP (Water Resources Management Plan), on environmental and landscape grounds. Our reservations were largely accepted in the Inspector's report. The team preparing the revised WRMP for 2014 has now decided to omit Clay Hill from its feasible options, though a number of alternative reservoir options are still under consideration.

Waste disposal by land raising

CPRE's opposition to changing the Wealden landscape by tipping thousands of tons of domestic and commercial waste onto unspoilt coutryside has also been successful. The final version of the East Sussex, Brighton & Hove Waste & Minerals Plan, currently subject to Examination, dismisses the landraise options in favour of increased recycling and recovery of the materials present.

Local issues:

CPRE successfully opposed planning applications to develop a large elderly care facility on a greenfield countryside site near South Chailey (refused by the Planning Applications Committee, against officers' recommendations) and a premature application, in advance of the Core Strategy and the Newick neighbourhood Plan, for residential development on a SHLAA site at Newick Hill (withdrawn in the face of opposition). Having a stand at the Lewes District Summer Fair was a successful, generating a great deal of interest and discussion.

An application for a market housing development at ‘Newick Hill’ in the village of Newick has been withdrawn. Newick, a large village in Lewes District, has several surrounding green-rated Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment Sites.