Residents show how much they love town

More than 200 of the expressions of likings for the town were collected at a Valentine’s Day event.

Town councillors marked the day by asking shoppers in the London Road precinct their views.

Among those who wrote their comments on the heart-shaped red notes was Katia Callander, 34, of Felpham. The mother-of-three was one of many who singled out the town’s cinema.

She said: “I really love the Picturedrome. It’s so old-fashioned.

“I tell my children this was how all cinemas used to be with its curtains and its features. I absolutely love going there.

“The seafront is also good and it’s great the clowns are also back and Sainsbury’s as well. All we need is Marks and Spencer and it will just be like old times again.”

Chichester man Richard Davies, 45, said: “I think Bognor is wonderful. I like the shops here and it’s got good bus services.”

Last Thursday’s event was the idea of town and district councillor Sandra Daniells, who chairs the work on the Bognor Regis Neighbourhood Plan.

She said: “We’ve had a lot of good responses. We will take them away and collate them and use them in a three-day workshop which is being held for us by the Prince’s Foundation.”

The result will be the neighbourhood plan which will enable Bognor’s residents to influence the planning system.

“It will help us to prevent any building in Bognor which is undesirable, promote the good and deter the bad,” said Cllr Daniells.

“We will be able to protect what we have and say where we would like housing to be built and what it should 
look like.

“But we will not be able to stop new housing.”

The neighbourhood plan will fit into the planning system alongside Arun District Council’s local plan land use blueprint.

It will have to be approved in a referendum, probably next year, before it can become officially adopted.

Bognor is one of the national frontrunners in compiling a neighbourhood plan. This has caused some confusion among residents.