New sunshine figures cast a shadow over Bognor Regis

The league table of 13 sunniest places in the UK released by weatherman Philip Eden has no place for the town which has long prided itself on its blue sky.

Meteorologist Mr Eden has put Eastbourne – Bognor’s traditional sunshine rival – at the top for the number of hours last year.

But his omission of Bognor has been criticised by those who seek to boost the town’s tourism image.

An Arun District Council spokeswoman said: “We are very disappointed not to see Bognor on this list.

“The town regularly features in one of at least the top three spots for the sunniest places in the UK and is very proud of its enduring record.

“Bognor Regis Town Council carries out a weather service and we’ve checked the figures for 2011. They show Bognor Regis recorded 1,865 hours of sunshine for the year.

“These sunshine figures are fed through to the Met Office and the MeteoGroup so we are unsure what figures were used to compile the list. We’d like a recount, please.”

The town council’s record of sunshine hours would put Bognor in third place of mainland resorts in Mr Eden’s list just behind Weymouth.

Eastbourne’s 1,962 hours of sunshine in 2011 is the best ahead of the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey.

Mr Eden, who manages weather-uk.com and climate-uk.com, admitted his list was incomplete.

He said: “I made it clear...that I had access to a limited number of sites, following the discontinuation of the newspaper resort list by the Met Office five years ago.

“Further, electronic sunshine recorders are now supplanting the traditional sunshine recorder and records from the two instruments are not comparable. I don’t have access to the Bognor figures.

The cloudiest place in the UK last year was Kinlochewe with just 855 hours of sunshine.