New comprehensive regeneration strategy to be produced for Chichester city

The aim of the strategy will be to look at potential key sites across the city to work out how they could be transformed, improving areas such as investment, infrastructure, employment and the physical look of the city.

During a meeting of the cabinet, council leader Adrian Moss said: “Currently there is no over-arching regeneration strategy to bring regeneration and place-making opportunities together within the city.

“Producing a strategy [will] be an opportunity to set out the potential key sites and it will also give us an opportunity to review the changes to the city that can help respond to wider issues.

“These include attracting investment and business, enhancing innovation and employment opportunities, infrastructure development and sustainability as well as physically transforming the city.”

An Initial Project Proposal Document has been produced, laying out the time-line of events before the final draft of the strategy is published in April 2024.

It includes workshops with councillors and the wider community to find out what people want to see covered.

Jonathan Brown, cabinet member for environmental strategy, said: “Chichester is a beautiful city with many things going for it and, in some respects, has weathered some of the recent challenges well – particularly compared with cities in other parts of the country.”

While pleased with the prospect of green and environmental growth via the strategy, he shared his concerns about the difficulty in attracting younger people to live and work in Chichester.

Mr Brown said: “[It’s] predicted to get significantly more challenging in the coming decades.

“In other words, fewer and fewer young people choosing to come to Chichester and stay in Chichester.

“That’s going to be a key part of what I’ll be looking [for] – for this strategy to really bear in mind is how we make Chichester a place that young people want to be in and physically can be in.

“That obviously covers things like affordable housing but also the night time economy and entertainment and so on.”

One of the city’s key regeneration sites is the Southern Gateway. Despite plenty of work behind the scenes, a comprehensive scheme has yet to come to fruition.