Sewer could force change of plan for Bognor's Morrisons store

Southern Water has told Morrisons its proposal for the improved store in the town centre is intended to be created above a 225m diameter sewer.

The retailer has been given two options to overcome the situation.

One is to change the layout of its intended store fronting the High Street above a car park with more parking behind.

The other is to divert the sewer or combine both suggestions in a single scheme.

“It might be possible to divert the public sewer, so long as this would result in no unacceptable loss of hydraulic capacity, and the work was carried out at the developer’s expense to the satisfaction of Southern Water,” engineers Atkins says on its behalf in response to Morrisons’ planning application.

A series of four conditions to limit the impact of the building on the sewer has also been set out by Atkins.

The company says the foul sewage network will be able to cope with flows from the bigger store.

But there is inadequate capacity in the local surface water network to service the proposed development.

Morrisons could put the surface water in the sewers once it has surveyed the pipes and received Southern Water’s agreement they could cope with the extra flows.

The alternatives would be to use an available watercourse or soakaways.

Morrisons’ plan is the biggest town centre development for decades. It will create 32,055 square feet of selling space - an increase of 13,272sq ft on the existing store. It will also enable two new small stores to be created.

Town planners Peacock and Smith, for Morrisions, say the investment will provide a major lift to the town centre as well as better choice for shoppers with a higher quality store.

The scheme also involves providing 446 parking spaces to make up for the loss of the current ground floor car park and the multi-storey Fitzleet site.

Arun District Council has yet to decide a date to determine the plans.