Pets at Home has eye on A29 premises

The supplier wants to move in to a new outlet on the Arun Retail Park on the A29 Shripney Road.

Its intentions are revealed in plans by the site's owner, the BBC Pension Fund, to sub-divide one of its existing units.

The proposals are to create two stores out of the current Carpetright outlet. Carpetright will occupy the larger of the new branches at 663sq m (7,136sq ft), with Pets at Home opening up in the smaller space of 465sq m (5,005sq ft).

Neil Henderson, of the pension fund's planning agent Gerald Eve, says in a statement there should be no conflict between the arrival of Pets at Home and protecting Bognor town centre.

"A significant part of Pets at Home's offer is made up of bulky goods which are appropriate in an out-of-centre or edge-of-centre location.

"It is important to recognise that no additional floorspace will be created and it is intended both units will be occupied by identified retailers acceptable on a bulky goods retail park," he comments.

Pets at Home's acceptance on out-of-town sites was shown by its existence on such a site at Rustington, Mr Henderson added. The pension fund's planning application for the current 1,200sq m unit also seeks to remove a condition imposed when the retail park was granted permission by Arun in November 1988.

This restricted the size of the units to more than 10,000sq ft and set strict conditions about what could be sold there.

Pet foods were excluded from the list. But Mr Henderson says this was typical of the period before Pets at Home and similar companies existed.

"Pet-related sales were, therefore, not anticipated in the list of permitted goods because there were no relevant operators at the time, rather than because they were not considered to be acceptable," he explains.

He adds that because the proposed branch is on an existing retail park, and within a current unit, it was not expected to generate more traffic to the site. No suitable locations existed within the town centre for either retailer.

This is the second time Pets at Home has sought to open in Bognor. The first was two years ago and featured a new unit on the Bognor Regis Retail Park further north along the A29.

But the firm's place was taken by Argos by the time Arun refused permission two months ago, as the Observer revealed.

Before that, the council controversially turned down Asda's bid to open a store just off the A29 at Oldlands Farm last December.

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