Anger at lack of progress on Bognor's regeneration

Paul Wells said developer St Modwen's continued failure to produce firm plans for the crucial Regis Centre and Hothamton sites was angering residents and business owners.

"There is much frustration growing in Bognor about what is happening to the regeneration of the town on the two sites.

"I know the council has given St Modwen three more years due to the economic climate. But these six monthly updates don't give us any more information than that the economic climate is to blame.

"The council should be demanding more from St Modwen. They still have schemes progressing up and down the country," he told Arun's councillors last week.

"The residents of Bognor deserve more than 'it's due to the economic climate'. We have got people in Bognor '“ who own businesses along the seafront '“ who want to know what is happening to the future of the town.

"This regeneration scheme has been going on since 2003 and there has been talk of regeneration going back to 1996. What sort of message is that sending out to the community in the town. They want to see some sort of guideline about where we are going."

Francis Oppler (Lib Dem, Orchard) said phasing the redevelopment could allow it to proceed.

But Norman Dingemans, who is in charge of Arun District Council's regeneration work, said the redevelopment of Hothamton and Regis Centre would not be separated.

"We don't want phasing of Bognor's regeneration. We have tied both sites together. We will not allow one site to be worked on without the other."

Developer St Modwen was given the contract to lead the town's 500m regeneration project in December 2007.

A year later, the company was granted until early 2012 to carry out the scheme because of the effect of the property crash. It updates Arun every six months with its opinion about redeveloping the sites for leisure and residential at the Regis Centre and leisure, retail and offices at Hothamton on Queensway.

The company's last update simply said market conditions were still too poor to enable it to go ahead in Bognor.

Mr Dingemans added: "With the housing market as it is, the scheme does not stack up for the developer at the moment."

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