Theatre's massive public support

Mr Spillars travelled from his Suffolk home to attend Tuesday's meeting in the Alexandra Theatre about the town's regeneration plans.

He told the two senior Arun District Council officials present that a dedicated performing venue had to be provided in the new-look Bognor.

"Bognor, you do need a theatre. This is the theatre you need to keep," he exclaimed to applause. "I saw my daughter in her first professional show here 20 years ago. I fell in love with this place. It's a lovely town and a lovely theatre."

The love affair was rekindled two years ago '“ after a false start in the 90s '“ when the theatre's current trustees asked him to stage its first professional panto for at least a decade. The show was a success with 45,000 box office takings but only just made a profit '“ 15.10. He will be back again this Christmas with Snow White buoyed by total audiences of about 11,000 out of 15,000 total seats during the past run.

Speaker after speaker spoke about their support for the theatre to a panel which included Arun chief executive Ian Sumnall and the council's Bognor regeneration taskforce co-ordinator Richard McMann.

A demand that a theatre was guaranteed for the future was backed on a show of hands by all but ten of the estimated 250 people present at the Bognor Regis Civic Society meeting.

A series of other votes also reflected their mood.

The idea of flats on the Regis Centre site was decisively rejected. Only a handful were in favour. This was despite a plea from 25-year-old Helen. She told the meeting: "I am really excited we are going to have some really attractive accommodation on the seafront. I would love to live on the seafront. There are not enough flats here now."

The idea of closing the seafront was backed by about 20 people with the rest against it. Other votes unanimously supported the need for more parking and rejected moving the library to the seafront and a 30-storey tower on the sunken gardens part of the Hothamton site.

A total of 81 questions and statements were made by those present during the two-and-a-half meeting to show the depth of feeling about the matter.

Mr Sumnall told the audience the mixed use nature of both regeneration sites was set in council policy.

"That is a given. The consultation is now about what form the development will take," he stated. But the closure of The Esplanade to provide a bigger leisure area was different. That depended on St Modwen being able to prove it would work.

He and Mr McMann left the meeting after about 75 minutes, as they said they would at the start, to one or two boos from the audience.