Bitter Political Dispute Breaks Out Over Local Plan For Lewes

A bitter political dispute has broken out over behind the scenes work to create a new local plan for Lewes. 

On Monday (June 14), Lewes District Council’s Conservative group announced it had formally resigned from the authority’s Local Plan Steering Group (LPSG) – a private advisory committee tasked with guiding work on the latest version of the district-wide planning document.

The Conservative group argues the resignations will allow it to better challenge controversial elements of the local plan, in a way it says would not be possible while part of the committee.

However, the move has come in for heavy criticism from the council’s cross-party administration, which described it as “pointless political point scoring”.

In a statement, Conservative group leader Isabelle Linington said:

“Conservative councillors’ views will be better represented when made outside of the LPSG.

“Conservatives on the council need to be free to oppose certain development sites, such as the controversial Eton College land proposal at East Chiltington. We can’t do that if we’re already a party to agreements made at the LPSG.”

In the statement, Conservatives go on to argue that they feel too few councillors had been involved with the steering group’s work and called for all district councillors to receive papers from its meetings.

Conservatives also argued that the council should look for evidence that the district cannot build homes in the numbers set by government targets, “rather than looking for space across the district to accommodate as many new houses as possible.”

Cllr Linington said: “Yes, we would have to show the government’s planning inspector that we have left no stone unturned in the quest for building sites, but that doesn’t mean unsuitable sites have to be built on, just to satisfy the numbers game.”

This point saw particular pushback from the Co-operative Alliance administration (made up of Greens, Labour, Lib Dems and an Independent councillor), which argued that getting a local plan in place “quickly” would offer better protection against “unwanted development” in the district.

Liberal Democrat council leader James MacCleary said:

“It is bitterly disappointing to see Conservative councillors following the example of their local MP, Maria Caulfield, in trying to undermine the local plan process like this. We had all welcomed their input into the process at a difficult time and I hope that they will reconsider this decision.

“We will continue to build the evidence base as required by the government to make the case to have the housing target reduced significantly. 

“The actions of the Conservative group are reckless and show that they are not serious in standing up for residents and our countryside in resisting pressure from the government ‘build build build’ agenda.”

A similar view was offered by deputy leader Zoe Nicholson (Green), who said:

“The Local Plan Steering group is a non-political group aimed at supporting officers to implement the government’s processes for local plan development. Not being a member means that officers won’t benefit from the views of local councillors from those most affected by the government’s housing targets.

“At a time when people needed their councillors most, when the government’s “build build build” agenda and cronyism is at its peak, walking away from the table does not protect the countryside in any way, it’s pointless political point scoring and very disappointing.

“The door is always open for our colleagues to work with us on this group.”

The dispute comes as Lewes District Council prepares to open its options and issues consultation – the first mandatory consultation in the local plan process. 

Set to begin on July 9, the consultation will not be seeking views on any individual sites (which come at a later stage), but will instead seek opinions on what the overall strategy of the plan should be. 

The consultation is expected to run for eight weeks until September 3.