Shoppers set to lose large store

Shoppers will make their final purchases this weekendfrom the largest community store in Bognor Regis.

The Co-op supermarket in Hawthorn Road will close for the last time at 4pm on Saturday.

Demolition workers will move in to reduce the single storey building at the junction with Gravits Lane to rubble.

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It will be replaced by a convenience store and 24 one and two bedroom apartments. The new store should be opened early next summer. The flats will be completed by end of 2008.

Customer Clair Robinson (53), of Nyetimber, said: 'This is going to be missed as a large store. There's a lot of convenience stores around but not many larger stores like this one.

'My son and daughter live nearby and are always coming here.

'My daughter calls in on her way home from Chichester to do her main shopping here because it is easier than going to somewhere like Tesco.

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'I use this store about once a fortnight when I come to see my daughter. It's convenient for me to do that.'

North Bersted resident Peter Stuppel (60) said: 'I'm not surprised this store is going. I use it occasionally and there don't seem to be many people around.

'I am surprised it was designed like this in the first place. There's a lot of room for parking but, as a local store, I would think a lot of people walk here.

'There's a real need for housing and it's good there will be some more homes here.'

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The Southern Co-operatives-run store was opened in August 1993 after it replaced the Olbys builders' merchant outlet.

First plans to demolish the shop were revealed in 2005 but the scheme was withdrawn before Arun District Council could decide the matter.

Two simultaneous attempts for redevelopment gained approval from councillors last August who received a 600 name petition in support of the schemes. One concerned seven apartments and the other 24 homes. The larger scheme is going ahead, with Persimmon Homes the developer.

The new store will have 278sq m of selling space compared to 760sq m in the current shop. The storage area will be similarly smaller at 170sq m against 305sq m.

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The number of staff will stay the same at 25 part time and four full time workers. They have been offered alternative jobs during the closure.

Seven of the apartments will be built above the new store.

A further two flats will be situated in a block to the rear of houses in Gravits Lane. The other 15 flats will be contained in a block in the current store's car park.

A result of the changes will see some residents in Gravits Lane, who back on to the store site, be given excess space by Southern Co-operatives to be turned into garden extensions and create vehicular access for the first time.