leave our libraryout of your plans

The county council-run library has been based in its London Road site since 1964.

The building was given a 184,000 makeover in late 2005 to extend and refurbish its ground floor.

It was dealing with 23,000 users a month at that time.

Developer St Modwen Properties has suggested in its initial proposals for the town centre regeneration that the library could form part of the civic facilities planned for the Hothamton site along the Queensway.

But Cllr Oppler, who is a county and district councillor for part of the town centre, said: 'I fail to see the benefit of this move for the people of Bognor.

'It was only 12-14 months ago where in excess of 100,000 was spent on the library.

'It's in a very central position in the town centre, close to the railway station and bus routes and very accessible to all sections of the public.

'It's also next door to a large school who I know avail themselves of the facilities there,' he told Arun's councillors last week.

'From my understanding, if the library is moved it's unlikely there would be a substantial improvement. It would just be a duplication of what we have already got.'

Arun council leader Cllr Gill Brown said changing the location of the library was the idea of St Modwen.

'I would have no objection to the library moving if it produced some substantial benefit.

'There is some merit in having all the public buildings in one place, but they have to demonstrate there will be huge advantage to doing that,' she said.