East Sussex petition on housing development continues to stir debate as consultation deadline looms

Anna Silvestri started the appeal after reading that real estate developer Human Nature planned to cut down most of the trees on the Phoenix Industrial Estate and Causeway for its new 700-home mixed-use development.

The petition has amassed more than 85,000 signatures, leading to members of the Human Nature team to call the petition 'inaccurate and misleading', claiming that people are being duped into signing something they know nothing about.

Andrew Simpson, senior planning advisor on the project, said: “There are not 85,000 objections to the Phoenix Project. This is an incorrect statement.

"We are now hearing from a number of people who feel they have been duped into clicking on the petition, only to realise that they appear to have objected to a ground-breaking sustainable new neighbourhood providing affordable homes for our young people, jobs and apprenticeships and a boost to the town’s ailing economy. They are justifiably and understandably distressed by this.”

Anna says the petition is very clearly about objecting to the felling of the trees on the Causeway, not the development, and points out that anyone who signs the petition on change.org has the option to withdraw their signature if they wish to do so.

She said: “All of the people I know who have signed the petition have done so to save the protected trees, not because they are against the development per se.

"I have heard of no one who feels they have been duped. There is no duping whatsoever involved in this and to suggest this is offensive and frankly outrageous.”

The trees along the Phoenix Causeway are covered by Tree Preservation Orders (TPO), an order made by a local planning authority in England to protect specific trees, groups of trees or woodlands which benefit the location.

The TPOs already allow for some trees in the Causeway to be removed by creating a gap between the TPO trees, leading to Anna to question why the TPO can’t be protected.

She said: "We have been merely asking that the Tree Preservation Orders be respected, the habitat the Causeway trees maintain be preserved and that the developer avail themselves of the access already allowed for in the TPO. This does not seem to be an unreasonable request on any developer.”

Human Nature claim the vast majority of trees in the area were in a poor condition with shallow root systems. The company also said some of the trees were at risk of Ash Dieback disease, leading to a local tree expert recommending their removal.

Anna says this claim appears to be in direct contradiction with Human Nature's planning application documents, including their Existing Tree Survey and the biodiversity assessment.

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The developer's Technical Report on Biodiversity, dated February 2023, scores tree health along the Causeway classed as 'Woodland' as ‘Good’ (p.5). The report also acknowledges that ‘This habitat will be lost under the Proposed Development’.

The tree survey classes the Causeway trees as ‘Category A’, which is the highest grade, and with an ‘estimated remaining contribution: 40 years".

Jonathan Smales, founder & CEO of Human Nature, said the company had conducted new studies on the area, one of which highlighted the poor condition of the trees.

The developer has now restarted work with landscape architects, designers and local tree experts and enthusiasts to ensure it created a green connection to the town centre.

Jonathan said: “As we’ve set out before, this is an incredibly complex former industrial site, which is being underused at a time when young people are forced to leave Lewes as they have few places to work or live.

"Difficult decisions have had to be made to make this site work for the town, and this connection to the new neighbourhood, safe construction access, emission-free car services and the creation of a people-friendly edge is crucial to its success.

"This area will be repopulated by healthy and managed trees and new pedestrian routes in a way that softens a currently noisy, dirty, polluted edge.

"250 trees are due to be planted, many semi-mature. We are already preserving trees by the bridge and will look to retain as many existing healthy Causeway trees as we can, replant vigorously and look after them well.”

The public consultation for the Phoenix Industrial Estate was originally set to close on April 21, but has now been extended to May 26, after The Friends of Lewes and other local groups asked the South Downs National Park Authority for an extension given the size and complexity of the application.