Regenerate or exploit'“ 'we need to get it right'

The town's chamber of commerce president and chairman, Nick Stuart Nicolson, said the latest proposals from St Modwen were not good enough.

"We must demand that which is the best possible for our residents and demand that which is best to attract visitors to our noted seaside resort," he commented at Monday's executive meeting of the chamber.

He noted the group's initial enthusiasm for St Modwen being chosen to develop the Hothamton and Regis Centre locations.

"However, in common with many others, we are now generally disappointed with the latest offering. Overwhelmingly, the whole of both sites are accommodation or flats led."

This was shown most clearly on the Regis Centre site where some 168 flats on top of an entertainment complex could replace the current mainly open site.

"Imagine Mountbatten Court and the Rock Gardens and Berkeley Court all joined together ten storeys high.

"And you can see the enormity and overbearing nature of such a 'carbuncle' construction," he stated.

He claimed the scale of the building would be 'immense and almost threatening'.

"It is going to overwhelm everything. Is this regeneration or exploitation?" he asked.

"These are potentially exciting times for Bognor.

"It is rather worrying that this is our one chance to 'get it right'. We must now hope that Arun District Council and St Modwen are listening."

Seafront golf course operator Paul Tiernan said Bognor seemed to be gaining very few leisure facilities from the plans.

"Apart from the ten pin bowling, everything else is merely replacing what we have already got," he stated. "I don't think it will regenerate our tourism business."

Mike Stevens, a website operator, said: "For the people of Bognor to sit back and let this happen, would be insanity in my view.

"We need to be fighting against this every step of the way," he demanded.

Shirley Hardy, a seafront trader, said closing The Esplanade to traffic would be a disaster for tourism.

"It will cut off our lifeblood. That would be diabolical."

The chairman of the Bognor 21 group, Roger Nash said the outline of the proposals for the Regis Centre reminded him of a knuckleduster.

"It's a knuckleduster to kill off Bognor," he stated.

But he did welcome some aspects of the proposals.

Ian Harding said Bognor needed radical change.

"The concept of these proposals is a great one.

"Bognor has got 40 years of catching up to do. We have been left behind by our rivals.

"We are going to have long, hot summers in this country and we need to be in the market to take advantage of them," he said.