Councillors speak out about Bognor's £1.5 million Place St Maur project

The comments come after council officers started testing the project’s newly installed water jets last week.

Although these routine checks are largely intended to clear debris from the pipes and do not reflect what the project will look like once finished, they have given members of the public a sneak peek at the future of the much-delayed development.

For Arun District and town councillor Jeanette Warr (Lib Dem), the changes are manifestly unimpressive.

"I know circumstances that arise during the course of putting something into action, and I know it isn’t quite finished yet, but even when it is, I do not feel that it looks the same as the plans that were put forward in the beginning,” she said.

"They’ve put in trees which, I feel, are not in keeping with the area – the palm trees we’ve pleaded for have not been planted – and I do feel the stuff they’ve put around the bottom of the trees is an eyesore as well.”

In updates related to the Place St Maur project, Arun District Council has made clear that features are not yet finished."The black tarmac is only temporary and has been laid so that we can open the site - it will be replaced by a coloured surface to match the other features on the site as soon as we have the materials,” a spokesperson said.

Works were originally scheduled to finish at the end of March, but, global supply chain issues have led to serious delays.

For Conservative district councillor Paul English, those challenging circumstances make finger-pointing a waste of time.

"A certain group is trying to politicise a situation that nobody in the world could have foreseen,” he said. “That nobody in the world could have done anything about at this stage.

"It wouldn’t matter what party was in, they'd all be in the same position now.”

Despite the challenges faced by the project, he says Place St Maur still has potential. ”I went there on Sunday, and I was amazed by the number of people using it for roller-skating That was fantastic. And when those fountains start going off, if they're going to roller-skate then, I want to be there for that!”

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