New research shows that almost half of us are scared of losing our local High Street and that two thirds want a High Street with a good mix of independent and chain stores. Currently one in seven shops across Britain’s High Streets are lying empty, the powerful cross-industry coalition of MyHigh.St, the British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) and Play.com, working with Action for Market Towns and the Association of Town and City Management, support the new service and encourage High Streets to go digital.

The MyHigh.St website comprises a new e-commerce network that for the first time gives towns a platform to showcase their High Streets and independent shopkeepers a simple, affordable and effective chance to sell their products online whilst driving in store footfall.

The website seeks to embrace new technologies, using them to rebuild High Streets as destinations to visit and shop – both online and in person.

The MyHigh.St website allows shoppers to visit their local High Street whatever the weather, any time of the day or night. The combination of e-commerce and High Street showcase, coupled with “click and collect” and an independent shops’ loyalty system, enables shoppers to buy online whilst encouraging visits in person.

MyHigh.St was conceived last year by Loaye Agabani, a toy shop owner from Somerset with a big vision.  He saw that a network of digital High Streets, showcasing all that Britain’s shopkeepers have on offer, would deliver a compelling shopping experience and a means to attract visitors to towns. 

Norman says:

“This scheme offers an opportunity for smaller independent retailers to reach out to a wider online customer base. Shop owners will be able to level the playing field between themselves and the retail giants.

 “It is innovative initiatives like this one that will help reverse the trend of high street closures and hopefully breathe new life into town centres. I hope that local towns will sign up for this scheme”

The County Council has been awarded £3.7million for local transport projects in Lewes, Newhaven & Eastbourne. The LSTF was introduced by Norman in 2011 to kick start sustainable transport projects across the country. 

East Sussex County Council has come up with a number of proposals for the spending of this money including improvements to Lewes Station forecourt, the extension of 20mph schemes to Malling, Landport and other areas, and the routing of Regional Cycle Route 90 through the town.

The public consultation is now open and is available on the East Sussex Website.

Norman says:

“Whilst it has taken them some time I am very pleased to see that the County Council is now consulting the public about how to best to make use of this funding. It is very rewarding to have a Government fund that I set up provide obvious benefits to the people in my area.”

 “Lewes will see tangible improvements to cycle and walking accessibility as a result of the LSTF, and a reduction in traffic.  Newhaven, through the Coastal Towns bid, will see new cycle initiatives and support to get people onto more sustainable forms of transport.”

 “I urge members of the public to have their say on how this money will be best spent to benefit to the town.”

 “The Lib Dems have long supported a modal shift to sustainable transportation and now, in government, we are delivering on that.”

The consultation is available here

On the 15th of January 2013, Lewes District Council approved Veolia’s application for the Installation of modular building, provision of HGV parking, provision of staff parking, and use as skip storage and vehicle depot. However, noting that this will bring increased lorry movements to the area, the council added a condition to restrict HGV movements to the hours 0700 – 1900 Mondays to Fridays (excluding bank holidays) and 0700 – 1500 on Saturdays.

Veolia subsequently appealed the HGV restrictions Condition and proposed lorry movements between 0400 – 1700 Monday to Friday, 0400 – 1200 on Saturdays and 0400 – 1400 on bank holidays. That decision caused uproar locally, with the local MP condemning the appeal in what he termed as Veolia’s “contempt for the people of Newhaven” and them “acting like an occupying force, aided and abetted by the Tory county council”. The MP wrote to the Planning Inspectorate to oppose the appeal in the strongest terms.

However, last week Veolia withdrew its appeal meaning that, at least in the short term, there will be no attempt to overturn the considered restrictions that Lewes District Council placed on the planning permission.

Norman says:

“The reasons why Veolia has withdrawn the appeal are as yet unclear, but I hope that they have concluded that it is time to give the residents of Newhaven a break. Nevertheless, whatever the reasons, this is good news which I welcome and which will be welcomed across the town by residents who have quite frankly had enough of the Tory County Council sponsored dominance of the town by Veolia.”

The Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, joined Norman at Lewes train station to announce the commissioning of a new study to be undertaken by Network Rail which will look at rail provision between London and the south coast.  As part of its terms of reference, it will specifically look at the case to reopen the Lewes/Uckfield line.  That in turn would allow an hourly direct train from Seaford to London.

The local MP has campaigned for the reopening of the Lewes/Uckfield line for two decades as it will ease the congestion on the Brighton mainline and could allow for more frequent services between Lewes and London, and direct services between Seaford and Newhaven to London.

Norman says:

“This has been two decades in the making so this week’s announcement by my colleague, the Secretary of State for Transport, that he is ‘alive to local interest in reopening the Lewes/Uckfield line’ and has commissioned a study is a huge step forward. 

“I have continued my campaign to get this line open because of the additional capacity that it will bring to the local rail network, including real possibility that direct services between Seaford and Newhaven to London could be restored.  The restoration of a direct service would be great news for the towns and certainly bring economic benefits.”

The new interchange was approved on the 25^th of March and will allow greater integration between rail and buses for visitors to the town, as well as residents of Newhaven who use the station.   The interchange will include space for two bus stops, a taxi rank, as well as a “kiss and ride” section for motorists to drop off friends or family members and this will ease congestion in the area.

The £100,000 interchange is going to be funded from section 106 money (money secured from planning gains), £58,000 of which has come from the approval of the Lidl site.

Norman says:

 “In order to meet our commitments to cut carbon emissions we need to encourage a modal shift to public transport and making it convenient is an important means to achieving this.  This is also yet another piece of great news for Newhaven.  The town is going to be the construction base for the Rampion windfarm, we have recently had confirmation that a University Technical College for the town has been given the go ahead and now the station is going to be improved with this interchange.  Make no mistake, Newhaven is on the up.”

District Cllr Steve Saunders:

“The station has been crying out for this interchange as access to buses and drop off points for cars is currently very inadequate.   I was chair of the planning committee at Newhaven Town Council when Lidl got the go ahead so I am very pleased that the Section 106 money that was secured from that development is being used to fund this much needed improvement to the station.”

Ends

The MP’s comments come in light of Veolia appealing the decision of Lewes District Council to minimise the impact of lorry movements to “safeguard the local environment and amenities of Newhaven’s residents from undue noise”.  Veolia has consistently pushed for their vehicles to operate in the depths of the night, but due to pressure from the MP, local residents and others, they have met strong objections at every juncture.

On the 15^th of January 2013, Lewes District Council approved Veolia’s application  for the Installation of modular building, provision of HGV parking, provision of staff parking, and use as skip storage and vehicle depot.  However, noting that this will bring increased lorry movements to the area, the council added a condition to restrict HGV movements to the hours 0700 – 1900 Mondays to Fridays (excluding bank holidays) and 0700 – 1500 on Saturdays.

Veolia has appealed the HGV restrictions Condition and is proposing lorry movements between 0400 – 1700 Monday to Friday, 0400 – 1200 on Saturdays and 0400 – 1400 on bank holidays.

Norman says:

“Veolia continue to push the boundaries and in doing so they are showing complete contempt for the people of Newhaven.  Under the permission issued, Veolia will be allowed to have HGVs operating from the site at 7 o’clock in the morning.  But it seems that this is not good enough for this company.  No, they want lorries rumbling around in the dead of night.  Veolia say they want to be part of the Newhaven community, but instead they are acting like an occupying force, aided and abetted by the Tory county council.”

A number of letters on East Sussex County Council’s website show that the Tory council is consistently allowing the rules on bank holidays for lorry movements to and from the incinerator to be “relaxed”.  Four letters on the website show that Veolia has made consistent applications for the rules to be relaxed and East Sussex County Council has been only too happy to allow this.

The MP concluded:

“Enough is enough, this appeal should be dismissed.  It is time for Veolia to start treating the people of Newhaven with some respect.”

Today’s announcement confirms that a CleanTech UTC has got the go ahead.  The UTC will be based in Newhaven and will specialise in environmental and marine engineering, building on the announcement of the Rampion Windfarm and its assembly base in Newhaven.

As well as teaching the students the core National Curriculum, the UTC will provide 14 to 18 year olds with high quality training that will make them excellent prospective employees in the industry of green marine technology.  The students will also benefit from compulsory extra-curricular activities, such as Water Sports, Scuba Diving, the Sea Cadets, Duke of Edinburgh Awards Schemes, and Environmental Action.

Today’s announcement is part of a wider programme of UTCs being rolled out across the country which have been supported by the Coalition Government and promoted by the Baker Dearning Educational Trust whose Chairman, Lord Baker, lives in the constituency of Lewes.

Norman says:

“Working with Lord Baker, the local authorities and I have been campaigning for Newhaven to get a UTC and I really could not be more pleased by today’s excellent news.  The UTC is going to provide excellent opportunities to young people in Newhaven and the wider Lewes constituency.  Students at the UTC will get the opportunity to learn technical skills that will allow them to specialise in a growing industry and will really help with their job prospects after leaving the college.

“With the UTC and the new Rampion windfarm, for which the town will be an assembly based, Newhaven looks well on its way to being a green marine energy hub.  In an industry that in my view will only grow in the future, this could really boost the long term local economy for the future.”

The application submitted by Veolia proposes the installation of a modular building, provision of HGV parking, provision of staff parking, and use as skip storage and vehicle depot.  The site is proposed to operate from 0400 to 1700 from Monday to Saturday and 0400 to 1400 on Bank Holidays.  In total it is proposed that there will be 40 heavy goods vehicle movements a day if the application is approved.

Veolia’s application comes over a year and a half after they applied to East Sussex County Council for a variation to the Planning Consent to increase lorry movements to the incinerator site, which was withdrawn due to local outrage and objections from the local MP, but earlier this year Veolia tried again and a decision on increasing lorry movements to the incinerator on Bank Holidays is still pending with the county council.

Norman says:

“Of course, I and residents of Newhaven did not want to see the incinerator there in the first place, but the county council proceeded anyway, riding roughshod over local opinion.  In fact, somewhat unbelievably, the Leader of the Council, Peter Jones, even said that the incinerator was his proudest achievement.

“However, what we did get within the consent for the incinerator was a limit on lorry movements to give local residents some respite.  For over a year and a half Veolia has been trying to change that through the county council, and now we are seeing them give the District Council a shot to see if they might permit movements to this new ‘depot’.

“I want to be quite clear about this.  40  lorry movements a day, including Bank Holidays, from 4 o’clock in the morning is unacceptable, and I would urge the district council to stand up for Newhaven’s residents; something the county council failed to do when allowing this monstrosity to go ahead in the first place.”

Link to the application:

http://planningpa.lewes.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=MC37Q3JD03500

The funding announced by the local MP equates to an award of £3.77million – with £1.571million for Lewes and £2.206million for two East Sussex Coastal Towns Newhaven and Eastbourne.  The aim of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund is to encourage growth and cut carbon.  Locally, the successful bids will focus on providing low carbon alternatives to short car commuting.  In Lewes, this will include:

• rolling out real time information at bus stops in Lewes for the 28, 29 and 29x bus service and throughout the town centre
• improving the interchange at Lewes Train Station to better accommodate pedestrians, cyclists, buses and taxis
• walking routes from the High Street to West Street will be improved with a town wide cycle/walking signage strategy being delivered
• the Lewes Station footbridge will also be improved with a cycle ramp being put in place to facilitate access from the station to the college, secondary school and leisure centre.

The Coastal Towns bid, which will benefit Newhaven, includes cash for cycle parking improvements, a new community rail partnership line for Brighton and Seaford,  Let’s Get Moving cycle training for adults and Wheels to Work & Education initiatives.  The bid aims to reduce vehicle miles by 6,782,933 vehicle miles and reduce carbon emissions by 8,552 tonnes.

Norman says:

“I am very pleased to have been able to announce the last of the successful bids to the Local Sustainable Transport Fund on behalf of the government and very pleased that Newhaven and Lewes will benefit from it.  Lewes will see tangible improvements to cycle and walking accessibility as a result of the LSTF, and a reduction in traffic.  Newhaven, through the Coastal Towns bid, will see new cycle initiatives and support to get people onto more sustainable forms of transport.

“The Lib Dems have long supported a modal shift to sustainable transportation and now, in government, we are delivering on that.”

Below is a link to the Ministerial Statement made by Norman.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/statements/baker-20120627a

Norman says:

“I have absolutely no wish to attend this poisonous event. This gigantic intrusion into the landscape was forced on the town against the wishes of virtually all its residents by the Tory county council. It has damaged the landscape and sent out a message that Newhaven is simply a convenient dumping ground for the rest of the county. There is nothing to celebrate.

“What is even more shocking has been the complete failure of the county council to negotiate any benefits for the people of Newhaven by way of planning gain. Any half-decent council would have secured millions in compensation, or the rerouting of heat generated to provide cheap district heating for the town. Instead, all we have are a few pathetic trees which would struggle to hide the sign to the incinerator, let alone the monstrous building itself.

“I would have hoped that Veolia, having been completely let off the hook by the council, would have had the decency to put their hand in their pocket and come up with a decent sum. If the company wants to be part of the town as it says it does, it needs to realise it owes Newhaven big time. Until it does, the incinerator will remain an alien intrusion in the landscape.”