£20m hotel at Butlins turns into eyesore for nearby residents

One of them, Ivy Ramsay, likened the new Butlins hotel opposite her house in Upper Bognor Road to a concrete jungle. She said: "It's called the Butlins Spa Hotel but it's an insult to Billy Butlin's name to call it that, as it looks like a prison.

"Friends and family visiting me thought it was hideous and could not understand why an eyesore was allowed to be built there at the entrance to Felpham village.

"If they have to make money from their hideous buildings, there is plenty of land further along to build their concrete jungles without interfering with the local residents who live in Felpham.

"Would those Arun councillors who gave permission for this hotel enjoy having the sun and light blocked out of their homes for years to come? They should be ashamed of themselves."

She scorned comments made by the managing director, Richard Bates, when he was toasting the start of work on the hotel last summer.

"He said the hotel would look breathtaking. He wants to see it from our side and come out into the real world."

Work building the hotel, just inside the entrance to the holiday site, began soon after Arun District Council gave planning permission last April.

When it is opened, probably this August, the hotel will be Bognor's biggest ever with 200 bedrooms and the largest for miles around. It will cater for 720 guests in rooms on five levels above an upper and lower ground floor.

Workmen have quickly built up the hotel to its maximum height. But its location means that it dominates the view from the short row of four terraced houses and small block of flats on the opposite side of Upper Bognor Road.

Mrs Ramsay (75) has lived there for eight years. One of her neighbours, Victoria Rance (64), moved in more than 15 years ago.

She said: "The hotel cuts out all our light. I wish I could pick it up and move it a short distance nearer to Hotham Park. It would not affect anyone there."

As well as the longer term impact of the hotel, the neighbours have also endured six months of intense building work.

Mrs Ramsay explained: "It's been like living on a builders' site and it is still going on. There is noise, banging, drilling every day and the crane swaying over our rooftops.

"We've also had the road being drilled up outside our houses '“ all for the benefit of this hideous building."

Another of her neighbours, Clare Hammond, has likened the effect of the large lorries delivering materials to the new hotel as being in 'a small earthquake'.

She said she had become increasingly worried about the possible structural damage to her house caused by these tremors.

Jeremy Pardey, Bognor Regis resort director of Butlins, said, "We are sorry to hear of the residents' complaints about our new hotel. We take our role within the community very seriously and see this hotel as not only hugely significant to us but also to the regeneration of the Bognor Regis area.

"As such, we underwent a thorough consultative planning process to establish full local backing. We are naturally sympathetic to the disruption and inconvenience the construction process can generate and will do everything within our power to minimise this."

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