Empty corner shop in Felpham targeted by vandals

The 150 homeowners on the Hurstwood Estate and their neighbours can only stand by helplessly as the one-time store stands empty.

They have turned to their MP, Nick Gibb, for help to avoid the building turning into an eyesore and blighting their neighbourhood and one of the most important entrances to the Bognor Regis area.

The last item was sold in the former Alldays store on the corner of Summerhill Drive and the A259 Flansham Lane on April 15, 2006.

It has since become the subject of a stalemate between the building's owner, the national Co-operative Group, and Arun District Council.

The Co-op insists the shop's 1,492sq m of gross internal floorspace cannot be used to sell any items which could clash with the goods in its convenience stores.

But it has also gone further by stating that it will not allow a florist, an undertaker or a travel agent to open there for fear the new business will divert trade from its companies.

Arun, however, insists it wants the premises to remain used for retail purposes.

It refused planning permission to the one formal scheme put forward for the building in the past two years when Allfield Financial Group wanted to open offices there.

The formal reason for the decision last March stated the council was unsatisfied that the shop could not be kept as a going concern.

Mr Gibb, the MP for Bognor and Littlehampton, said: "I am very concerned the Co-op has left this store closed for two years.

"It is completely unacceptable and damages the attractiveness of the local environment.

"I am taking up the case with the head of the Co-op and will report back to the Hurstwood Residents' Association."

Residents' association chairman Graham Keen said: "The council knows how the Co-op feels about the building and the Co-op knows how the council feels.

"The two sides are opposing one another and neither is prepared to give way and we are getting nowhere. The concern of our members is that the longer and longer the building stands empty the more and more rundown it becomes.

"We don't want a derelict building at the entrance to our estate or on the outskirts of Bognor. Bits of vandalism have started to take place there and that can only get worse."

He said the Co-op's ban on goods and services which could occupy the building meant that it was unusable.

The shop dates from 1950 when the original site office for the Hurstwood estate builders became a one-man shop. It was eventually bought by the Alldays convenience store chain.

The company was taken over by the Co-operative Group about a year before the Felpham branch was closed because it was unviable. The national group signed the lease over to Southern Co-operatives last June.

A Southern Co-operatives spokeswoman was unavailable for comment.