NORTH STREET QUARTERLEWES, EAST SUSSEX
Date: 2019
Scheme: 416 dwellings, town flood defences, 330-space public underground car park, health hub (including doctors, dentists and pharmacy for 26,000 patients), new offices, light industry, shops, restaurants, bars, riverside plaza, creative spaces, riverside promenade, improved access to, and new footbridge over, the River Ouse.
Challenges:
- Largest current regeneration project in any English National Park.
- Site majority owned by an off-shore investment fund, part owned by Lewes District Council.
- Lewes provides a challenging political landscape, requiring understanding and careful communication, to ensure all differing expectations are managed and delivered.
- Liaison with multiple stakeholders: South Downs National Park, Lewes District Council, East Sussex County Council, Environment Agency, The Crown Estate, Lewes Town Council, South Downs National Park Design Review Panel, and three site-bespoke working groups including the North Street Quarter Sounding Board, Landscape and Play Group and Design Working Group.
- To lead large team of professional consultants from the fields of architecture, planning, arboriculture, archaeology, mixed-use, QS, ecologists, engineers, heritage, highways, landscape, market research, M&E, sustainability, PR, solicitors and surveyors.
- Technical challenges of redeveloping a former Victorian industrial works, next to the River Ouse. Site required remediation, while respecting existing archaeology (scheduled monument on-site), heritage and ecology.
MCC Role:
- Discharge of Pre-Commencement Conditions for Phase 1 Detailed Planning Permission.
- Extensive consultation with officers from the South Downs National Park, as well the South Downs National Park Design Review Panel and three local stakeholder groups, before submission of Reserve Matters Application in 173 new dwellings on Phases 2 and 3.
- Consent received in December 2018.
- Planning Permission implemented in February 2019.
