Bognor Regis Herald

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Large differences persist in Bognor Regis re Deprivation

by Jan Cosgrove, Editor

Looking at the map above, this shows very clearly the areas of greatest and multiple deprivation in the area compared with those much less deprived. Those coloured blue are the greatest deprivation, on the Index of Multiple Deprivation, the darker the blue, the worse the deprivation.

It can be seen that the areas of Marine Ward and of The Trees Estate show up as the most deprived, they are in the first decile (top 10%) of most deprived of the Lower Super Output Areas [LSOAs] used by the Government to monitor deprivation of all types. Next, in the 2nd decile, are areas within Pevensey Ward and out at Yapton on the Foundry Road estate (in the 11–20% range).

Those areas of multiple deprivation also tend to be reflected in the specific indices of deprivation concerning eg income, health, education and training, environment etc. By contrast, areas such as Aldwick are more likely to figure eg in deciles 6,7 , 8, or even 10.

LINK to .xlsx format spreadsheet (download)

This link shows the complete details for the LSOAs in this area

These deprivation differences have not changed very much over decades. Maybe some improvements in some areas. For example, at one stage the life expectancy in part of Pevensey Ward was 15 years less than in neighbouring Aldwick East. which was always mind-blowing, I once coined the term “Third World Bognor” to the ire of some Tory Councillors at Arun at that time.

What has been done to ‘level-up’ the situation for those areas over the years? Can regeneration achieve that? To be honest, the current government-funded levelling-up scheme re The Regis Centre is not really capable of doing so, it will affect the IMD very little, and indeed, with the current economic trends, one would predict more people will be experiencing greater deprivation in those and other local areas.

At this time, we have yet to see whether the new ‘Alliance Administration’ at Arun Council will be able to develop a cogent strategy to tackle these issues in a meaningful manner, one has doubts any such approach has been or will be developed at West Sussex.