LEAF (Lewes Environmental Advisory Forum)
LEAF is a special interest group, which will rely on members of the community, with the requisite knowledge.
In late summer 2024 a group of local residents and councillors met to discuss how local communities could be more involved in safeguarding the local environment. One idea was to find a way to feed local environmental knowledge into the planning process. People felt that ecology reports (necessary for planning applications and drawn up by consultant ecologists and ESCC ecologists) sometimes missed things that were clear and obvious to local residents – like Nightingale sites.
A scoping group of local residents and councillors came together to draw up terms of reference for a potential special interest group. LDC planners have welcomed the opportunity to increase community engagement and helped develop the terms of reference for LEAF. LDC Planning has agreed to work with LEAF to ensure the group is kept up to date with planning applications (at all stages of the application process) and to allow the group to contribute to Ecology Reports. These contributions, properly supported, will carry weight within the planning decision process.
There are now two interim co-chairs and the plan is to run a pilot over the coming year. .
If you would like to get involved or ask further questions please contact Cllr Mark Slater (acting convenor for LEAF) at mark.slater@lewes.gov.uk
