We are powerless against developer
I AM a resident of Orchard Road in Lewes and have been supporting RAID (Residents Against Inappropriate Development) and Lewes Coalition to stop the development of the Malling Brooks area in Lewes.
This area being a natural flood plain and a habitat to numerous species of birds and wildlife.
I started off feeling confident that RAID had sound and evidenced reasons for objecting to the developers planning application, eg increasing the risk of flooding in the Malling area and Lewes as a whole, the negative impact of increased traffic in the area, Lewes gaining national park status and the fact that industrial units are not needed as there are already numerous empty industrial buildings in other sites in Lewes.
We have since realised that we are in effect powerless against the developer as planning law is obviously weighted strongly in their favour and we live in a society that values above all else money.
The human experience of simply enjoying this beautiful natural environment and helping it to develop was, I realised, at the start never going to be a good enough reason for stopping this development, and this was also evident when a proposal to develop this area in to well needed allotments and a nature reserve was disregarded by most of the councillors.
Why after so many objections were raised by local people was this planning application granted?
The planning officers and councillors said that there were not good enough legal reasons to object to this application, however, they were not prepared to take the risk of a legal challenge on behalf of the local people, even though local people strongly objected to the planning application.
This development serves no one else but the developer.
The local people will not gain anything but will loose a valuable natural resource. A resource which could have been developed and cherished for the next generation.
Michelle and Barry Mason, Lewes
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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