Sainsbury's: We want to compete with Tesco in Bognor

They will show the retailer wants to occupy about 100,000sq ft on ten acres of the former Lec Refrigeration factory site along the A29 Shripney Road.

Of that plot, 55,000sq ft will be selling space. Groceries will take up 45,000sq ft of that area with non-food goods occupying the remaining shelves.

The rest of the store will be given over to store rooms and space for the estimated 400 full and part-time workers who will be based there.

Raof Daud, managing director of site owner Sime Darby London Ltd, said the store aimed to increase choice for Bognor's shoppers.

"Sainsbury's proposals are about competing with Tesco on the opposite side of the road," he claimed.

"They are not about bringing shoppers in from Littlehampton and Chichester but about stopping people going to those places."

The store is planned to occupy the plot from opposite Kwik Fit south to its boundary along the Aldingbourne Rife.

Immediately to the north of the store will be a car park with 600 spaces stretching southwards from the Green Topper car sales business. Also included on the Sainsbury's premises will be an eight-pump filling station.

It is expected to take nine months to a year to build the store if the district council gives planning permission and the decision is not challenged by the government, which can sometimes occur with larger proposals.

Before any building work can begin, another year has to be spent cleaning up the site.

This means it is likely to be at least late 2010 before Sainsbury's returns to Bognor after an absence which will then just exceed two decades.

The store will occupy the land on which Bognor's gas works stood before Lec arrived in the late 1940s. This fuel use has contaminated the earth.

The 200-300mm deep concrete and Tarmac which covers the former factory site hides one-time tar tanks, sludge tanks and associated pipework under that spot. It will cost several millions of pounds to make the land safe for 21st-century environmental health standards.

Sime Darby London has already spent 500,000 to rid the decaying buildings from the 1950s-1970s of some of their asbestos.

What do you think? Click here to send a letter or leave a comment below.

Click here to go back to Chichester news

Click here to go back to Bognor Regis news

Click here to go back to Midhurst and Petworth news

To tell us where in the world you are reading this story click on the link below to add yourself to our readers' map.

MAP