Councillors urged to take charge of Bognor town regeneration

Adam Cunard told Monday's (September 14) meeting of the town council now was the ideal time for it to take charge of the regeneration process.

"Let's move our vision of regeneration forward and shape the future ourselves," he told his fellow councillors.

He pointed out the schemes by developer St Modwen for the Hothamton and Regis Centre sites received plenty of criticism when they were unveiled two years ago.

His comments followed Arun District Council's decision to scrap its Bognor Regis regeneration task force by March 2011.

The four-strong team will be reduced to 1.5 full-time equivalent officers by next March, before the workload is absorbed into the council's economic development section a year later.

This is because the government funding which paid for the task force has run out.

Town councillor Simon McDougall said the impending demise of the regeneration task force should not be an excuse for failing to improve Bognor.

"Now is not the time for us to stand still with regeneration," he stated.

"I would like to see us go out with a proper consultation process, with a blank sheet of paper, and ask people what they would want to see.

"I would want us to ask young people as well because they are the future of the town and they should be involved in the process too.

"This council is the grass roots council. We should be the voice of the people, we should be leading from the front and we should be a community champion."

Arun's chief executive, Ian Sumnall, is to talk to the town council's policy and resources committee about the demise of the task force.

But Greg Burt said he would not support handing over any money to keep the taskforce going.

"I've never thought Arun took us seriously over regeneration but, the minute the money runs out, they are banging on the door wanting to talk to us," he claimed.

Paul Wells said the regeneration taking place '“ Butlins, Bognor Regis Community College and the University of Chichester '“ was the result of private enterprise or direct community funding.

"We have private investors doing the work and, thank goodness they are, otherwise we would have little to show for all this talk of regeneration.

"As a town and a community, we have been badly let down over this," he said.

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