Funding to improve two key Bognor Regis sites approved

The Sunken Gardens and Place St Maur will both be given facelifts after councillors approved a total of £870,000 for the work.

Some £370,000 will be spent on the Place St Maur project, which will complete the through-route from the railway station to the seafront.

The rather tatty tarmac will be replaced and an area of soft landscaping added alongside new water jets, lighting, seating and a flexible space to accommodate different events.

Work will also be carried out to find a solution for the area’s poor drainage.

The project will be backed by £1.2m from the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

At a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (January 13), a suggestion was made that the project should be delayed until other Bognor regeneration proposals had been heard.

Grant Roberts (Con, Arundel & Walberton) told the meeting that ‘at least one’ of those proposals ‘may involve taking the cost of this’.

A delay, though, would lead to the loss of the LEP money – which has to be spent by March 31 2022 – something leader Dr James Walsh said would be like ‘kicking a gift horse in the mouth’.

Philippa Dart, director of services, assured members: “In no way does this prevent any other regeneration schemes from coming forward.

“It’s an absolutely fabulous exciting scheme for Bognor Regis.”

The other £500,000 will be spent on improvements to the Sunken Gardens.

The work will include moving the play area elsewhere in the site, building a new entrance to the gardens, refurbishing the planting borders and looking at the seating within the gardens.

It is hoped the work will attract families to the site and also address anti-social behaviour issues.

While concerns were raised about the cost of the scheme, it was approved  by 24 votes to 0 with 22 abstentions.

Pumping life back into the Sunken Gardens was an election pledge from the Liberal Democrats and they were clearly delighted to be able to see it through.

After the meeting, Matt Stanley, cabinet member for technical services,  said: “This is a great opportunity to revitalise a piece of community green space.

“The gardens hold a special place in the hearts of many Bognor Regis residents.

“This work will seek to make the gardens more family friendly and amongst other things finally open up the southern entrance.”

Mr Stanley said both projects were expected to be finished early next year.