Fridge-making to stay at former Lec site

Outline plans revealed at the same time as the formal details of the Sainsbury's store on the important location show the tradition of manufacturing the household items should carry on.

Site owner Sime Darby London Ltd wants to retain and refurbish the Widdowson Building, behind a car dealership along the A29, to enable its current occupier to stay.

That firm '“ Polestar Cooling Ltd '“ employs 27 one-time Lec employees in Bognor making refrigeration products mainly under contract from the current Lec now based on Merseyside.

Jeremy Gardiner, Sime Darby London's regional director, says in a statement with the planning application for the proposed works: "This is a young, expanding company (Polestar) which is keeping the legacy of refrigeration manufacture alive on the Lec site. The Widdowson Building suits the needs of their business and they have stated their commercial interests would be harmed if they had to relocate."

Sime Darby proposes to reclad the brick-built building as part of the changes to the site.

Polestar's presence at the location means that fridge-making there has entered its seventh decade. Lec arrived there in 1948 and continued until December, 2004, when production was switched elsewhere on the site.

At its peak, the firm employed up to 2,000 staff and was the second biggest UK fridge and freezer maker to dominate Bognor's industrial scene.

After the refurbishment, the Widdowson Building will provide 2,177sq m of space over two floors for industrial uses.

Alongside it, Sime Darby London and its redevelopment partner, Sainsbury's, propose to build a 2,100sq m unit for office or industrial workshops. It is intended to be 30m deep and 70m long, which would make it 2.5 times the size of the Widdowson Building. It would not be quite so high.

The new premises could be one large building, a number of smaller

incubator units for fledgling companies or an enterprise centre for new firms.

What are the Sainsbury plans at the former Lec site?

The Sainsbury's would be built on two floors. The ground floor would be devoted to 5,619sq m of selling space.

Most of this '“ 3,033sq m '“ would be for convenience goods and the rest for bigger, products. Above would be a customer restaurant as well as space for storage and offices.

Some 400 employees, 150 full-time and 250 part-time, are expected to work in the proposed store.

It will take up about 70 per cent of the former Lec site and will occupy its southern end. There will also be a six-pump filling station, a car wash and a jet wash. A 602-space car park will be provided.

Extent of contamination on former Lec site

A detailed report with the application shows the amount of contamination of the ground which is a legacy of the previous manufacturing.

Among the substances under ground are coal tar and hydrocarbon contaminants, heavy metals, cyanide, sulphate and chloride. Some of these date from a gasworks on the site's southern portion between 1913 and 1958 before Lec bought the land.

The nearby presence of the Aldingbourne and Lidsey Rifes means the land has a one in 100-year risk of being flooded.

Any new buildings allowed by councillors will have a floor level built above the expected height of any flooding to limit the potential for damage.

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