Request for help for Bognor Picturedrome rejected

Nick Stuart-Nicolson, the chairman and president of the town’s chamber of commerce, said the cinema only survived thanks to Bognor Regis Town Council’s decision two years to buy it after it was put on sale after a plan to turn the main screen into flats.

“We respectfully suggest you drop the plan for a multiplex on the Regis Centre site,” he told district councillors.

“Will this council join the town council to secure the future of the Picturedrome cinema?”

Arun’s economic head, Cllr Norman Dingemans, said the regeneration plan by St Modwen three years ago had included a Regis Centre multiplex.

“We wish the Picturedrome every success but this council is not in the business of preventing competition.

“If the proposal is for a small complex, may be three or four screens, I can see no reason why the two can’t work in synergy for the benefit of everybody in Arun and on the coastal plain,” he said.

He also rejected Mr Stuart-Nicolson’s request for a grant for some of the £2.75m which Arun received from Butlin’s for a new lease to be put into building two new screens at the Picturedrome.

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