Developer 'committed' to Bognor regeneration

Regional director Tim Seddon said the development company was as keen as ever to transform two of the town's key sites in a 100m scheme.

He said: "Being positive, our ambition for Bognor is completely undiminished. We want to be doing what we do best, which is to be developing land. But we are currently in unchartered waters for many of us.

"We are struggling with the viability of our scheme (for Bognor). Land values from their peak to the trough have fallen by 25 per cent.

"There's probably going to be another 10-15 per cent drop before we reach the bottom.

"However, there will be a bottoming out of values and those values will rise again."

Mr Seddon was speaking before Arun District Council's Bognor Regis sub-committee members who voted to give St Modwen up to three more years to put in an outline planning application for its proposals.

The outline proposals would cost 500,000 to one million pounds to prepare and, assuming they were approved by Arun, would need to be followed by detailed plans for approval before any work could begin.

John Pinkerton, of the council's property advisor Frank Knight, said the three year extension was sensible combined with the timetable of regular updates.

"Three years does seem a long time but it's realistic given the current economic state we are in," he commented.

Council leader Cllr Gill Brown said: "This is a sensible way forward. "When the development agreement was signed, no one could have foreseen the dire financial situation we are now in. The near meltdown in the banking system could never have been expected."

Cllr Simon McDougall (Bersted) said: "This is a very sad day for Bognor. But it's unavoidable in the current climate. Hopefully, we can get a move on before 2012."

Cllr David Biss (Orchard) said he was disappointed it could be another six to seven years before any work started on the redevelopment schemes.

"That is a long way off. People in Bognor would like to see things happening a bit quicker than that," he urged.

Cllr Ricky Bower, Arun's councillor in charge of planning, said extending the current deal with St Modwen was better than going back to the very start and searching for a new company.

"It has taken us 30 years to get to this stage. We want to hang on to this agreement and we can go ahead very quickly if we need to. That can only be to Bognor's advantage," he added.

* Town councillor Ken Scutt told Bognor Regis Town Council at its meeting on Monday he wondered if St Modwen would be around for much longer.

He said: "I wonder if they are going to survive long enough to build these schemes. Their share price was at its lowest ever level today."

But St Modwen regional director Tim Seddon had earlier told Arun's councillors the company was in good financial health. He said its annual results published last Friday showed yearly pro

"fits were down at 8.2m and its assets had fallen in value along with all properties.

However, he stated: "We are well placed for the future. The majority of our bank loans expire in 2011/12 which gives us plenty of time."

What is planned

St Modwen's plans for a leisure complex on the Regis Centre site feature a conference and cinema venue along with restaurants and bars, topped by 168 flats in a nine storey building.

For Hothamton, off Queensway, its plans involve a 20-storey tower block, a civic centre, a possible health centre and a new shop.

Fact file

As previously reported, the original deadline for the preparation work was set for March 31 this year after a previous short extension was granted from last December 31.

But the worldwide economic crisis, and plummeting property and land values, means the ideas for Hothamton and the Regis Centre locations no longer make financial sense.

The sub-committee did agree to keep the development agreement with St Modwen unchanged rather than amend it or even scrap it and seek a new partner.

Members also insisted on updates from the firm every three months as well as six monthly reports to future sub-committee meetings.

Mr Seddon confirmed his willingness to attend those meetings to explain matters personally to councillors.

They also warned that a failure to meet the latest deadline could mean that St Modwen was likely to be ditched.

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