Context 162 - November 2019

C O N T E X T 1 6 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 9 39 Lewes may well be a harbinger of the future. There is an urgent need to distil punchy arguments that can counter-challenge assertions that may ultimately come to threaten our mission. The neighbourhood plan takes care to protect another identified asset, the town’s wealth of green spaces, some of which are long- established bonfire sites and therefore culturally precious. One green space identified is particularly large, the open downland, once the site of the Battle of Lewes in 1264 between Henry III, Simon de Montfort and his barons. Much later, this land would become the former Lewes Racecourse, convenient to Brighton and greatly beloved by the Prince Regent, who is reputed never to have missed an August meeting. The plan secures conservation of this and other green spaces for the duration of the plan period (15 years) as local green space – a designation that carries a similar planning weight to green belt. The battlefield is now one of the largest designated local green spaces in the country, protecting its special historic interest and giving further weight to its status as a registered battlefield. Following examination in 2018, the neighbourhood plan sailed through referendum with a Yes vote of 92 per cent out of a respectable 25 per cent turnout and was formally ‘made’ by the South Downs National Park Authority on the 11 April, 2019. Locally generated neighbourhood plans are sometimes dismissed by planning professionals and the development industry as parochial, defensive and frequently inward- looking. This would be an entirely unfair criticism of the Lewes plan, which looks forward just as much as it looks back and is truly radical, with particularly ambitious encouragement for the provision of genuinely affordable new homes. A generic weakness is that the wording of some policies required considerable vigilance on the part of the local planning authority and the examiner up to and including the final stages of examination, as in any subsequent appeal situations the legal profession may be guaranteed to exploit any policy ambiguity or imprecision for the benefit of its clients. Historic England was pleased to provide additional support with policy writing, given the importance and sensitivity of the town’s built and archaeological heritage. Finally, if there is a concern, it is that policies of the plan have been conceived for a development industry that the people of Lewes would like to exist, rather than the development community Britain actually has. It will be interesting to see if the idealism of the plan can actually triumph over the harsh realities of development politics and market forces in the years to 2033. Michael Scammell, conservation officer, South Downs National Park Authority The assistance of Ian Linton of the neighbourhood plan steering group, Richard Eastham of Feria Urbanism and Rob Lloyd-Sweet of Historic England is gratefully acknowledged. The ridge seen from Southover Grange