Wake up to reality

Caf Continental has, for 14 years, had alfresco tables outside its premises in Montague Place without a problem but now, as reported in the Herald, the pen pushers at the two respective councils have outlawed the furniture as a "highway hazard".

Recession, neglect and apparent local authority mismanagement have turned parts of Worthing town centre into a virtual ghost town.

What Trevor and his wife Sue, amongst others, are doing is running a successful business that actually attracts people to the town centre, not only to enjoy themselves but spend money.

Clearly, 14 years without incident indicates there wasn't a problem, so who in their right minds in the corridors of power now sees fit to cut off a major income stream to a local successful business?

Obviously, someone who won't be content until the town centre is totally deserted and the question will be asked in the council chamber: "Where did it all go wrong?"

Don't get me wrong, if I was a parent at the Vale First and Middle School, I'd be miffed that the mayor and mayoress fell asleep during a recent performance of Bugsy Malone.

However, I also do have a degree of sympathy with the civic couple.

When my two youngsters were growing up, many a time as a family we visited neighbouring multiplex cinemas at Crawley, Brighton and Chichester (due to reasons best left to another column, Worthing still doesn't have one).

As state-of-the-art cinemas, comfortable seating was a big factor and, unfortunately, due to the aforementioned comfort, there were a number of occasions that I didn't make it through the whole film without dropping off.

In fact, there are still large sections of the films Star Wars the Phantom Menace and two of the Harry Potter series that I need updates on.

Ian Hart's comment is published in the Herald series every Thursday

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Returning to mayor Nol Atkins and his wife Helena, also in their defence, the mayoress has recovered from a stroke, so the workload taken on by both of them during a hectic mayoral year is testament to their dedication to a very important position, and having spoken to a parent at the school, a bit like with me and the films, dropping off was their loss as they missed out on a cracking show by the youngsters.

Another shop has recently vacated Broadwater Street West and this time, the departure was not as a result of the company going down.

I spoke to the business, which has branches elsewhere, and the closure was solely due to unrealistic increased rent demands of the landlord.

In recent years, this is not the first time I've heard this and I do wonder if the large corporate landlords really do care if units stay empty in places like Broadwater.

A blip on a balance sheet against the heart of community?