£600k to be divided

The decision on allocating the £600,000 Kickstart funding from West Sussex County Council was made by Arun District Council’s regeneration subcommittee.

Its members decided:

n £100,000 will be spent overseeing the delivery of enterprise@BognorRegis over the next 18 months;

n £240,000 to complete a masterplanning exercise for enterprise@BognorRegis, with local development order work for sites and other planning tasks;

n £30,000 to assist in Coastal West Sussex marketing, with particular emphasis on enterprise@BognorRegis;

n £120,000 to part fund public realm improvements to London Road;

n £110,000 to work on the empty space/business start-up project in Bognor town centre.

Members also decided to put any under spend towards the public realm improvements.

Anthony Everitt, Arun’s senior economic development officer, said: “Councillors want as money to be spent on the public realm improvements as possible. This could mean different planters, flagpoles, lampposts and flags. We have a really open mind about what could be done rather than having fixed ideas.

“This work will be concentrated on the London Road precinct, the High Street and The Arcade.”

A programme to carry out the improvements is being compiled by the district council. This money will be added to £100,000 which has been allocated from the Sainsbury’s £500,000 towards the town centre.

Mr Everitt told the subcommittee in a report: “It is currently accepted by Bognor stakeholders that the look and feel of the main retail precinct in Bognor is in need of improvement and a more co-ordinated approach to the public is required.”

For the enterprise@BognorRegis spending, this will employ a specialist manager on an 18-month contract to develop a masterplan for the area around the A29 aimed at creating thousands of jobs.