Lewes District Interim Land Availability Assessment 

Lewes District Council is preparing a new Local Plan covering the areas of the district which fall outside the South Downs National Park (SDNP).  

From September to December 2020 we carried out a ‘call for sites’ exercise as part of our development of a new Local Plan for Lewes district,which will coverall areas of the district that fall outside of the South Downs National Park. 

The requirement to undertake a LAA is set out in the National Planning Policy Framework 2021 (NPPF). 

Further work is needed to gather evidence to fully assess the sites submitted and whether there are other sites that could be included. However, we have published an interim Land Availability Assessment to share the assessment undertaken so far to make sure we are keeping our communities updated with our progress.  

The Interim Land Availability Assessment is available to download below. 

Please note the interim report does not allocate sites for development and assessments of the sites does not mean it has any weight in planning decisions, nor is the assessment council advice. It is a technical document which assesses whether a site could be ‘suitable’ for development. Further work would be needed, and the normal planning application process would have to be followed before approval was granted. 

Work will continue between now and the winter to understand what additional information is available and whether there are other sites that could be considered. We will be inviting submissions for additional information during this time.  

The Local Development Scheme sets out the timetable for the preparation of the Local Plan. 

All documents relating to the SHELAA/SHLAA prior to 2014 including reports, maps and appendices can be found in our Background Documents page.