Plea for more investment in Arun’s buildings instead of ‘waiting for them to crumble’

Councillors have called for a long-term strategy to care for Arun’s buildings following a string of ‘urgent repairs’.
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One such building, The Arcade in Bognor Regis’ town centre, brought in £129,000 less than expected for Arun District Council.

The majority of this is made up by rent arrears and more than £200,000 has been allocated for ‘urgent repairs’ in the budget.

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The Alexandra Theatre is also expected to receive £30,000 over two years to address a roof leak and equipment upgrades before it benefits from a £12.1 million levelling up grant.

Parts of the Arcade building's roof in Bognor Regis are in need of urgent repairsParts of the Arcade building's roof in Bognor Regis are in need of urgent repairs
Parts of the Arcade building's roof in Bognor Regis are in need of urgent repairs

But ‘significant funding’ will be needed to maintain the condition of council-owned buildings ‘after years of under investment’, according to a review carried out in 2019.

Opposition leader James Walsh (LDem, Beach) said action must be taken at the Arcade ‘as quickly as possible’ and he called for a long-term strategy to invest in Arun’s buildings to stop them falling into disrepair.

“Councils generally, and not just this council, are pretty good at having capital programmes and putting in new facilities,” Dr Walsh said, “but they’re less good at actually maintaining them.

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“I want to make sure that we are making provision for the maintenance of what we’ve got, rather than waiting until it crumbles and has to be totally replaced.”

The roof of Littlehampton's Windmill Theatre is also set to be repairedThe roof of Littlehampton's Windmill Theatre is also set to be repaired
The roof of Littlehampton's Windmill Theatre is also set to be repaired

Dr Walsh also pointed out Littlehampton’s Windmill Theatre as an example, though the council’s budget includes a new roof for the venue.

Council leader Shaun Gunner (Con, Rustington East) said: “We’ve definitely heard the message, I think it’s been mentioned at every meeting.”

The leader also pointed out £987,000 proposed for improvements at Arun Leisure Centre in Bognor Regis, and tasked officers with bringing forward an ‘asset management strategy’ to safeguard council-owned buildings.

But funding this could be a challenge.

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A capital strategy shows how the council will invest in its buildings and infrastructure, including IT systems and vehicles, up to 2027.

Although £3.9 million will be invested in 2022-23, this will fall to £2.4 million by 2027.

Chief executive James Hassett said that ongoing building maintenance is challenging as it puts a strain on the budget for other services.

“To put something right is quite rightly a capital investment,” he said, “but the ongoing maintenance of this often comes out of our revenue budget.

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“Therefore it puts additional strain on our revenue budget which obviously pays for the majority of services that we provide in the district, as well as our staffing and a range of other things.”

This, coupled with falling income from the sale of buildings, means that large repair projects may have to be funded by borrowing.

But officers said a capital strategy would help to ‘bring the council to a better position’ with building maintenance.

“It’s a programme which we can’t do all in one fell swoop but ultimately we are making significant progress,” said director of place Karl Roberts.