Consultation pledge overregeneration

St Modwen said yesterday that the submission of planning applications for the regeneration of the Hothamton car park and Regis Centre locations was up to 12 months away.

The next couple of months will see the company compile more detailed proposals for the areas to put out to public consultation. This will include the eye-catching building on the beach.

Intended for an arts centre, its future is unclear after an entertainment and cultural study recommended placing all the facilities in the main landmark building on the Regis Centre site. Only one new idea '“ for restaurants and a shop '“ has been made public

St Modwen has warned that, until the formal applications are submitted from next June onwards, the detailed designs of the proposals will be subject to changes based on comments from residents and groups involved with Bognor.

The public consultation exercises will be widely promoted, a representative of St Modwen pledged, to allow everyone who wants the chance to have their say to take part.

St Modwen's development director Gary Morris said: 'We are committed to public consultation for both sites and want to re-iterate that there will be the opportunity, over a number of occasions, for the community to get involved with the design process.

'Delivery of a sustainable scheme which benefits Bognor as a whole is key.

'Therefore, we have been working closely with Arun District Council to progress the legal agreement efficiently and agree an approach to the delivery of schemes across both sites which will ensure they work for the local community as well as attracting new visitors to the area.'

Since July last year, St Modwen has been given the exclusive right by the council to work on far-reaching proposals for the seafront Regis Centre seafront site and the Hothamton area off the Queensway.

The seafront land is destined to be used for a leisure scheme of eight storeys with attractions such as a multiplex cinema and bowling alley with 168 flats above. For Hothamton, the emphasis will be on 25,000sq ft of offices as well as shops and two tower blocks of flats.

Bringing the schemes to fruition involves overcoming several more hurdles.

The first is the signing of the legal agreement, also known as the development agreement, between St Modwen and Arun. This is due next month.

St Modwen will then have a year in which to submit planning applications for the redevelopment. The sheer amount of work and consultations involved means the submission will not be made before next summer. But St Modwen is still basing its ideas on the masterplan approved by Arun for the two sites.