Fears over Bognor Regis Museum

Mrs Jones said she regretted the fact the local history society had taken out a £60,000 mortage against the building she donated to its members.

She paid £270,000 for the former Berkeley Arms as well as gift aid to the society through the taxman of another £74,000.

But the cost of conversion work at the Thirties building has soared to leave the local historians reliant on the mortgage to get the work finished ready for the opening next April.

“I wish I had never given the building to the local history society now,” said Mrs Jones, “because I feel the project is going horribly wrong.

“I fear for the financial stability of the museum because the local history society no longer owns the building with a mortgage on it.”

The story of Bognor’s new museum began publicly last December. It was then revealed Mrs Jones had bought the former pub on West Street and handed it to the local history society.

She intended her generous gesture to mark a new building for the museum after more than ten years spent in cramped accommodation on the High Street.

Bognor has always lacked a permanent centrally-sited museum in which artefacts of its colourful past can be properly displayed.

Experienced property operator Mrs Jones asked the local history society to agree for her to use the upstairs rooms of the building by continuing their use as B&B accommodation to be run by the operator of a cafe on the ground floor.

She believed keeping the rooms for B&B occupiers would be much cheaper than meeting the latest building regulations to convert them into residential use.

But the local history society has decided to follow a different course. It has spent heavily, and relied on builder Gary West’s goodwill, to change the rooms into three two-bedroom flats. They will provide an income to meet the museum’s running costs.

It has also rejected the idea of a cafe to enable as much space as possible to be devoted to displays and to avoid the museum becoming too much of a business.

Mrs Jones said she feared she was being portrayed as a petulant woman because her advice had been ignored.

But she said her concern was about the museum’s future rather than her reputation.

“I know once I have given money to a charity I can’t ask where it’s going to go.

“But I am sad and disappointed about the situation at the museum,” she said.