Tag Archives: buses

Demolition of Lewes bus station – less than a week to submit your views – closing on 15th June 2022!

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Will the South Downs National Park approve plans to demolish the Lewes Bus Station?

The Generator Group, and the site owners are proposing to demolish Lewes bus station and replace it with 40 dwellings along with commercial space for offices or shops. Sadly, currently they propose no affordable homes nor do they appear to offer to fund a new bus station.

To comment on this planning application go to: https://planningpublicaccess.southdowns.gov.uk/online-applications/

Click on ‘search’ and then choose ‘simple search’ and enter the application number: SDNP/22/02197/FUL

Or you can email: planning@southdowns.gov.uk

It’s worrying that the National Park seems to want to hurry this application through the planning system allowing only  5 weeks of consultation for the public to make their views known. The application was only validated on the 11th May 2022 and comments must be in by the 15th of June. That’s just 5 weeks including bank holidays and weekends. The National Park have not taken account of the the Queens Jubilee bank holidays and celebrations when many people were quite rightly celebrating the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.

In reality this application ought to be considered as a ‘major’ planning application with a 13 week consultation. However, right now the important thing is to spread the word about this development and ask that people to submit their comments. The developer will no doubt say in their defence they have held public consultations and submitted a pre application. That’s correct and hundreds of people gave their comments on the pre-application which ran for 7 months, from August 2021 to February 2022. Very unfortunately any comments made during that stage will not be taken into consideration by the planning officers when considering the main planning application.

Alternative ‘bus station’ sites

The developer also will no doubt say that they have put forward a series of alternative sites for the bus station but they’ve not offered to fund the building of the infrastructure for these sites. Are these proposed alternative sites suitable? Have a look at the developer’s suggestions by clicking HERE

(See our previous post click ( HERE )

Future of Lewes bus station in doubt!

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Could the Lewes bus station be lost? 😦😦😦  A “pre” planning application has been submitted to the National Park planners to demolish the bus station and construct a mixed-use ‘gateway development  with 3 commercial units and 41 residential units. The overall height is planned to be 4 storeys with some 5 storey elements. These are initial plans and they could change. This is what the first part of th application says:

There is a real chance the bus station will be lost. The applicants have been made aware of the planning requirement for a replacement bus station facility but we don’t know at this stage if such a requirement is mandatory. In any event where would a new bus station go? 

The application number is SDNP/21/03284/PRE but according to the South Downs National Park on-line comments are not permitted. This may be because it is a “pre” planning application. However there is no harm in writing to the National Park planning department. Email: planning@southdowns.gov.uk. It may also be worthwhile writing to the National Park members nominated for East Sussex. They are Richard Waring, who is also a Lewes Town councillor,   (richard.waring@southdowns.gov.uk ) and Vanessa Rowlands (Vanessa.Rowlands@southdowns.gov.uk ). They both sit on the Park’s Planning Committee.   

If you value the bus station facility, do write and give them your views. 

Also, East Sussex County Council (ESCC) is involved as they are the Transport Authority and it’s believed that discussions regarding the provision of a replacement bus station have been opened with them. One could write to them at publictransport.pts@eastsussex.gov.uk to express your views. The county councillors for Lewes are: 

Councillor Johnny Denis  cllr.Johnny.Denis@eastsussex.gov.uk    

Councillor Wendy Maples cllr.Wendy.Maples@eastsussex.gov.uk 

The irony of this threat to bus services in Lewes comes at the time when the County Council is consulting on a government proposal  entitled Bus Service Improvement Plan! It’s bad enough getting East Sussex County Council to improve the bus service when they’ve done just the opposite over the last decade but this threat to the bus station isn’t a good omen to kick off the county council’s public consultation on their Bus Service Improvement Plan https://consultation.eastsussex.gov.uk/economy-transport-environment/bsip/  This consultation has just opened and will close on 14 Sep 2021