Bid to put Bognor's regeneration on three-year hold

Developer St Modwen Properties wants to put off submitting formal plans to transform the Regis Centre and Hothamton sites.

The company has asked Arun District Council to agree to it missing the March 31 deadline to seek planning permission for the major schemes.

It wants to set a new deadline of March 31, 2012.

Reviews by the council and St Modwen will be carried out every three months to see if work can be started sooner.

The request is being considered by the council's Bognor sub-

committee on Monday, March 2.

Committee chairman Cllr Norman Dingemans said: "The financial figures have moved the wrong way for St Modwen because of the credit crunch.

"I would like the work to start tomorrow but everyone has to be realistic in the current climate. We didn't want work to start on one site without a firm commitment that it would take place on the other as well.

"We could have pushed St Modwen to make a decision by March 31, but that could have forced them to make a decision we would not want."

Arun was happy to stick with St Modwen, he stated, because of the company's continued keenness to be involved with Bognor.

It would also cost a lot of money to re-advertise for a new developer, without any guarantee of the outcome, and would mean compiling fresh proposals.

"But if in three years nothing has happened, that will be six years since we began this process, and we will have to look again at the whole situation," he explained.

St Modwen intended to put together formal plans by last December 31 but missed this deadline as well.

Richard McMann, the council's Bognor regeneration task force head, says in a report about the latest delay: "It is extremely disappointing for everybody concerned and for the Bognor community at large that, despite the significant efforts to progress the development of the Regis Centre and Hothamton sites, an unprecedented global economic malaise has created this current situation.

"The position is not unique to Bognor or to the agreement between the council and St Modwen.

"Around the country, town centre regeneration schemes have either been postponed or, in some cases, abandoned."

What was planned?

St Modwen's last known plans involved a nine-storey building on the Regis Centre seafront site. It included 168 flats, a combined cinema, performance and exhibition space and scope for bars and restaurants.

An operator for the entertainment complex has been signed up.

On the Hothamton location, off Queensway, it was intended to create a 25,000sq ft civic hub of council offices and services as well a 30-floor skyscraper of flats along with a health centre and a shop.

A new library could also be included at either site or, most controversially, at the university campus.

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