Clarity lacking on Bognor Regis Regeneration — answers and responses needed
Letter sent to Arun Council today
Dear Group Leaders and non-aligned Members
Firstly, A Happy and Successful New Year to you and your Members, The Chairman and The Chief Executive and staff.
The pandemic we have with us …. but we all surely accept that for Bognor Regis, its Regeneration remains the long-term major priority. Whilst many of you will have made much of the Levelling-Up grant, for me it raises very serious questions about genuine Regeneration, as opposed to both piece-meal redevelopment and a recladding exercise on the Regis Centre site. This concern is shared by many. It is not the convenient political fix that matters to the Town’s future over decades ahead, even if this has its attractions for some amongst you.
As one of those who responded to Arun’s invitation in the autumn of 2020 to put forward proposals and who made presentations earlier this year, I feel we have all been treated with discourtesy. Having made those, you decided at the full March 2021 Council that a working party would be set up to these these ideas forward. However, not a sausage from you, the LUF proposal not only took precedence, they appear to have buried that process. No thought seems to have been given, for example, to the problem that its acceptance might prejudice superior ideas for the Regis Centre and thus other sites.
Nor do we have any real detail on what this recladding scheme will bring to the Town Centre, especially in comparison to the other schemes now lying neglected in the rush to land the LUF grant. How many of you have seen the full proposal sent by Officers to the LU Department? Quite a few of your members say not. I have tried to get copy of the full application, less commercially-sensitive aspects via FoI from the Department — no they say:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/levelling_up_fund_3?nocache=incoming-1941489#incoming-1941489
I didn’t even bother with the same from the Council ….. but I have recently submitted this FoI to Arun seeking details:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/levelling_up_bid_2021#incoming-1942763
May I remind the Leader of the Council and his predecessor as Opposition Leader, that I worked quite closely with them and Cllr Roberts in the submission of the motion in September last year which started the Presentation, at which time I myself had no intention to make a submission. Even at the point at which your predecessor as Leader of the Council was lauding this LUF bid (and who with the Independent Group Leader continued the reprehensible record of not even sitting down to talk with Project Sunrise), you were clear with me that the Presentation process must continue, and when you became Leader of the Council, you told me you were “stuck with it” as regards the LUF submission.
Fair enough, but surely all of you have a duty to look at these other ideas. I have been a supporter of Sunrise, but now I believe common sense says you and they and others should now sit down and TALK, to see if the £12m+ from LUF and those ideas and funding can work with this grant award. I would think the Department would be very sympathetic.
My own position now is to make those resources work for the Regis Centre as the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ as per the Masterplan (eg larger multipurpose venue, hotel, seafront boardwalk, and other enhancements, plus parking plus luxury accommodation on Hothamton, hotel, new health centre etc on Hothamton, improved play area, parking).
I fully expect to be ignored/blocked as some have (and they know who they are). I am not interested in that, but surely you all should be consulting the people of this Town, instead of rushing ahead with a half-brained, lame cop-out. Arun did that last time in 1996, only just failing to eliminate the theatre — a one-off payment of £300,000 for a 50 year lease (equivalent to £6000 per annum rental for that key site. We ended-up with what we see now …. and you want to reclad that …..
I would want to see you tell the Officers, who gave you all this, that you are the decision-makers.
Regards
Jan Cosgrove
Virus-free. www.avast.com
