Norman Baker MP Member of Parliament for Lewes constituency
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Contact Norman at:
Norman Baker,
23 East Street,
Lewes,
East Sussex,
BN7 2LJ.
Tel: (01273) 480281.
Fax: (01273) 480287.
Email: info
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Bring forward bus solution or forget your redevelopment plans, MP tells developers
Plans to redevelop the present bus station site for mixed retail and housing uses will fail unless a bus facility of equal or better quality than the existing bus station is provided elsewhere nearby.
That was the stark message from Lewes MP Norman Baker to developers Rees Elliot when they met at the MP's Lewes office yesterday (Monday).
Norman Baker says:
"This was a useful meeting, and I was interested to learn of the developers' plans for the bus station. If it is to be redeveloped, then the sort of mixed use they envisage, with a predominant retail element and some housing above, seems to me to be sensible in principle. But I was disappointed that so little thought appears to have been given to the needs of bus users, and I had to make it clear that I would oppose any proposal that did not find a solution to the present bus chaos in the town centre, and I expected that the District and County councils would take a similar view."
The District Plan says that a bus station must remain on site here, unless a facility of equal or better usefulness is provided elsewhere nearby, for example on the NCP car park.
Norman adds: "I have therefore asked the developers to come up with a scheme that produces a satisfactory replacement bus facility nearby, or to limit their redevelopment proposals to the area which the now closed bus workshop occupies, keeping the existing bus station in use."
The MP has also called on the county council to be more proactive in trying to find a solution to the bus chaos that is enveloping Lewes town centre.
"We have an Alice in Wonderland situation, where some buses bypass the dedicated bus station, and instead use the wholly inappropriate adjacent narrow residential street as an effective terminus where buses can wait for extended periods, engines running, while top deck passengers can gaze into residents' bedroom windows. If the owners of the bus station decide to shut it to all buses, as they legally can, then this chaos will get much worse. Yet the county council appears to be waiting for events to unfold, rather than try to shape them. They should specify what the minimum requirements are for any new bus facility, and where they want it, and engage actively with Rees Elliot on that basis."