VOTE: We'll have no say how our £500,000 is spent in Bognor

No elected representative from the town’s four wards will have a vote when the projects to improve its retail heart are discussed.

The money is being given to Arun District Council on behalf of Bognor by Sainsbury’s to counter any impact from its new store on the site of the former Lec factory.

Half the cash – £250,000 – will be handed over next year when building work starts on the Shripney Road store. The rest will follow when the first customers do their shopping there in about two years.

Town councillor Simon McDougall said Bognor’s destiny was yet again being taken out of its own hands.

“No democratically-elected representative from Bognor will be involved when the decisions are taken,” he said.

“They will be made by councillors from places such as Arundel and east of the River Arun.

“How can they make a decision on behalf of the people of Bognor which is best for local residents and the economy?”

The process by which the money will be spent was agreed without debate by Arun’s cabinet. Its members decided the Bognor Regis regeneration board, which meets behind closed doors and whose private meetings are not publicly reported, would suggest schemes for the money.

Those suggestions would be published for the cabinet to vote on in public.

But the board contains just two Bognor Regis town councillors among its 18 members. Others come from national developers such as St Modwen Properties and Butlins’ parent company, Bourne Leisure.

Two of Arun’s seven-strong cabinet – who represent areas from Aldwick East to Ferring – are also board members.

Bognor Regis regeneration task force head Richard McMann defended the procedure by which the Sainsbury’s money would be spent.

“The board are managing the programme and taking input from a whole range of people. It will be for the cabinet to make the decisions.”

The £500,000 is part of a £900,000 payment which Sainsbury’s has agreed to pay to help Bognor.

Of the rest of the money, £125,000 will be spent on a business enterprise scheme with the University of Chichester and £260,000 on improved bus services to the new store.