“This looks like the beginning of the future”

Attendee at the Phoenix Design Festival

Our vision is for the Phoenix to be not just a new development providing new homes and opportunities within the town, but also an anchor, rooted within and supporting the local community.

From the outset we have endeavoured to create longlasting relationships with members of the community built on trust and openness, in order to understand hopes, desires, stresses and concerns regarding the redevelopment of the Phoenix site. This extensive public engagement, combined with an iterative design process, has allowed us to develop a proposal which responds to the comments received.

The Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) which has been submitted as part of this planning application sets out in detail the engagement undertaken over the previous two years, the issues and actions arising and how Human Nature has responded.

We have worked to reach as many people as possible within the community and to make our exhibitions and events accessible. As a result, the engagement strategy has included a range of events, both one off and regular, aimed at engaging different audiences, and focused around different themes of the project.

The feedback processes for the events varied depending on the type of event held and the way in which we asked for people to provide their feedback. However, in each case feedback was collated and shared both with our internal team and with the relevant external consultants. In some cases, for example following the Design Festival, this involved collating many one off comments into a report to understand the overarching issues and opportunities, and how they could influence design phases. In other cases, the feedback has been an ongoing iterative process, as in the case of our working groups who were presented with plans as they developed in order to receive their feedback. In every case, the feedback was examined to understand how it could be fed into either the design itself or our wider vision for how life on the Phoenix will be in the future.

Overall we consider that we have embraced a responsive design process which has allowed us to create a project which responds to its context both visually and in terms of meeting local needs.

6.1 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY

What we have done:

More than 3,000 visits to the Phoenix Design Festival, September 2021

More than 100 engagement meetings held in total between January 2021 and January 2023

More than 1,000 attendees to the Phoenix Public Exhibition, April 2021

More than 60 local community organisations, groups and businesses engaged with

150 individuals have expressed an interest in living and/or working on the Phoenix

Since the beginning on 2022, over 200 members of the public have attended specialist workshops, focus groups and briefing sessions

Our River Walks series has attracted people to learn about the Ouse River from local specialists

Time Line

Meetings with community groups / organisations Communications Education /

Meetings with community groups / organisations

Meetings with community groups / organisations

6.2 RESPONSES TO COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Issues

The overwhelming majority of people consulted want development to come forward after years of neglect, uncertainty and dereliction. The site and neighbours at the Pells are at risk of catastrophic flooding, the land is unsightly, tenants have no guarantee of timing for their businesses, buildings are in an increasing state of disrepair, new homes are needed urgently and people want the new health facilities and the jobs that a successful scheme can bring.

“HUMAN NATURE”

Human Nature was warmly welcomed as a local developer with clear values in regard to social and environmental sustainability, for its open approach to engagement, listening, and deliberation, and increasingly as an employer of local people and a customer for local businesses.

Issues

Consultees left the design team in no doubt that Lewes is a special place, with a strong history and character, and that the proposals for the Phoenix should be of the highest quality and reflect the beauty and spirit of this town.

One of the most commonly raised points in the consultations was, is this development going to be “of Lewes” or will it sit on the edge of the town as a disconnected and unsympathetic add-on and unrelated to the rest of the town?

Many people commented that the development should have “its own character” and be “contemporary” but also fit into the “historic context of Lewes” and at the same time not be pastiche or incoherent in design terms. These are major challenges to a design team but ones which have to be addressed in a scheme as important as this.