VOTE: Will you be letting Arun Council know your views on leisure services?

The future of important sites, such as West Park and Waterloo Square, as well as buildings like the Regis Centre and the Arun Leisure Centre, will be covered.

Potential changes to them will be included in a revised leisure draft strategy being published by Arun District Council on September 17.

This will be the start of a three-week intensive consulation period in which people will be asked for their views about the services.

The responses will be considered by councillors before they make a final decision on the matter.

Jan Malpas, the secretary of the Friends of West Park, said yesterday its members hoped the latest version of the strategy would contain their ideas to improve the four-hectare seafront space in Aldwick.

“We would like to have a hardcore path all the way round the park,” she said.

“We would also like the unofficial entrance at the north of the park made official and safer and open up the park to people around Aldwick Felds.”

The Friends were strongly against the earlier ideas for West Park of creating a bowling green and tennis courts there.

Draft

Arun commissioned a draft leisure strategy from Colliers International in 2011.

This resulted in a £25m leisure and culture blueprint for at least the next two decades.

But some of the ideas provoked controversy.

As well as West Park, Colliers suggested selling the Swansea Gardens bowls and tennis site for housing and moving the bowling greens at Waterloo Square to West Park and replacing them with a garden for residents and visitors to enjoy.

Other ideas included spending £4m-6m to upgrade the Alexandra Theatre in the Regis Centre, adding two screens to the Picturedrome and improving the Arun Leisure Centre.

It has not been revealed which of these ideas have survived into the latest version of the strategy to be published on September 17.

An Arun spokeswoman said the council wanted to hear people’s views about the strategy.

“It’s a chance for members of the public to have their say on the whole range of facilities that they and their families, as well as visitors to the area, use to relax and enjoy themselves in their free time and what improvements, if any, they would like to see over the coming years,” she said.

Have your say

Will you be letting Arun Council know your views on leisure services?

You can cast your vote by clicking on the poll at the top right of this story.

Alternatively, you can have your say by commenting below or emailing [email protected].