Plans to remove parking bays and extend pavements in Lewes ‘disastrous’

Plans to remove parking bays and widen pavements in Lewes have been described as ‘disastrous’ by local traders.
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East Sussex County Council has written to businesses and residents explaining the plans which are part of the government’s £250m emergency active travel fund.

The fund is to help councils reallocate road space for cyclists and pedestrians and support safe social distancing in areas where people congregate – such as town centres and high streets.

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As part of phase one, the county council, working with local councils and in partnership with East Sussex Highways, will introduce physical distancing measures along Lewes High Street.

Upset Lewes traders. Picture: Edward Reeves PhotographyUpset Lewes traders. Picture: Edward Reeves Photography
Upset Lewes traders. Picture: Edward Reeves Photography

To allow these measures to be introduced, on-street parking bays will be suspended, and barriers will be installed to widen the footway on the south side of the High Street between Eastgate Street and the traffic lights at Westgate Street.

The council says the temporary measures will be introduced during August and will be in place for a period of at least three months.

This week, local traders which say they are already suffering amid the coronavirus pandemic blasted the plans, describing them as ‘another blow’.

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Kate Burgess-Craddy, managing director of Lumen of Lewes Ltd in Cliffe High Street, and a member of the Lewes High Street Traders Association, said: “This is a major issue facing the town right now. Not only will it look dreadful, but it will reduce much-needed parking for shoppers, unfairly impact on elderly and less abled shoppers who cannot walk up/down School Hill, and cause serious, long-lasting damage to businesses that rely on these parking bays for customer collections and deliveries.

Retailers in Lewes are truly suffering right now and some shops have never reopened post-lockdown or are announcing they will soon close permanently. Argos, Clarks, Fat Face, Oasis, Paul Clarke ladieswear and Capriccio are just some of them.

“If Lewes residents and the council want to maintain a vibrant town centre they need to stop and think now about the impact of their actions which will fall on top of the disastrous spring.”

Kate opened her lighting and homeware shop in Lewes in October last year and trading got off to a good start. January and February this year were good, she said, but when Covid-19 hit in March it ‘fell down a cliff’. She was forced to shut the store, which she runs with her daughter, Robyn, and did not reopen again until June 5.

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Kate said: “June and July have been strange. We have had lots of excellent support from people but everyday is different – you never know whether it is going to be a good or bad day. Business hasn’t been as bad as I feared but I am still not jumping off the rooftops.

“We are now open seven days a week, rather than five. We have had to make this choice to survive – we are having to adapt. But this is just another blow. And the council is not listening to any of the arguments as to why this is such a disastrous decision for the town.”

Tom Reeves, owner of Edward Reeves Photography in High Street, Lewes, described the scheme as ‘an ill-conceived box ticking exercise by ESCC Highways’, adding that it discriminates the less able, such as the elderly and the visually impaired, and anyone who cannot walk or cycle a long way into town.

He said: “With the devastating effects of the covid crisis already evident on the High Street, we are just terrified of the possible effects of this ESCC Highways scheme on the surviving businesses who are trying to work their way back to normality.

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“Pavement widening only occurs where there happen to be on-street parking spaces, and that’s not where the pinch points for pedestrians are. It will involve the loss of over 30 parking bays and at least one disabled bay, and will deny access to drop kerbs.”

Tom added that the plans were ‘a deterrent for shoppers to visit the town, especially as no additional parking has been made available in lieu of the lost spaces’. “It will be in place for at least a three month ‘trial’ period which will effectively take away all our Christmas trade,” he said.

“I think everyone wants a better, cleaner, safer environment, and we have long campaigned for, among other things, better off street parking with adequate signage to allow people to walk into town.

“But these requests to the ESCC have fallen on deaf ears and the proposed scheme will achieve no worthwhile result.”

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Peta King, who owns Kings Framers in the High Street, said she and other traders were ‘very worried’. “We have been here for over 20 years. Our business is not viable if there is no parking.

“The pavements are already wide here – this scheme is absolutely unnecessary and doesn’t make any sense.”

East Sussex County Council confirmed the Lead Member for Transport and Environment will be considering recommendations for the emergency active travel fund at a meeting on August 17.

A spokesman said: “We appreciate the concerns raised and acknowledge that this is an extremely challenging time for businesses trying to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. Our priority is to support those businesses in their recovery and we do not want to put in place any measures that have an adverse effect on them with little benefit to the community.

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“The Government has instructed us that Emergency Active Travel Fund measures must be in place by early September, which has limited the amount of time we have to consult.

“We have written to businesses and residents proposing these temporary measures and asked them to let us know if the measures will have an effect on them.

“The feedback will help decide which schemes we proceed with.

“The measures proposed are designed to create safer spaces for people to walk and cycle, and give them confidence to return to town centres knowing they can follow the two metre social distance guidelines easily.”

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