Phoenix Quarter land 'not for sale'

Cllr Ann De Vecchi said the council did not intend to sell any of its land in the North Street area of Lewes to developer Angel Property.

Charles Style, the director of Angel Property, was surprised at the revelation and said the council's chief executive had told him no decision had been made on the proposed development for 775 new homes, 30 shops, a multi-storey car park and a cinema in Lewes.

Angel Property has earmarked part of the land for a cinema.

Cllr De Vecchi said: 'This land is for industrial use and employment, and it's also where our recycling centre is based and a car park.

'It's clearly the council's policy that if we still require the land for operational use we do not release it.

'This is existing council policy, and the most important thing is the land is for employment use.

'At the moment I can't see why we would sell the land for development, the council needs the land, the businesses on the land have long leases and the money from those leases are used for the whole district, not just the town.'

She said the developer would have to take this into account when it lodged a planning application for the project.

Developer Charles Style was shocked to hear this news.

He said: 'We have not made an offer to buy their land so I don't understand why they would have made a decision about the land.

'In the past I have met with John Crawford, the chief executive of the district council. He said they wouldn't make any decision at that stage and that we should submit an application and they would wait to see how the development proposals shaped up.

'What Cllr De Vecchi has said has taken me by surprise.

'If this is definitely the case and the council has decided to refuse any application from us, we would take this into account and review our application.'

Mr Style also said he understood the council would not sell land used for existing industrial use and said he was proposing to build a new industrial site in Malling.