Developer lines up second public exhibition

The company is aiming to stage its second exhibition before August as the preferred developer for the town's regeneration. But Garry Morris, its development surveyor, said the date of the event could be delayed.

"I am confident we will be coming back to the people of Bognor in the summer. It is likely to be in three or four months' time. That's a long time for us to do more work," he stated.

"We will only go out to the public once we have 70-80pc of what we want to be in the planning application for the schemes. If, for whatever reason '“ say, we need more time to complete our studies '“ we have to delay the exhibition we will do that."

St Modwen has until this December to submit a formal application for the work on the Hothamton and Regis Centre sites under its agreement with landowner Arun District Council.

Mr Morris said the company was doing everything possible to meet that deadline.

"There is a lot of work going on, such as traffic studies about the closure of The Esplanade.

"For the tower, the work is about where it is going to be on the Hothamton site, how high it will be and the wind effect if it is built," he added.

Other talks were considering issues which included the possible moves of the library and the health centre to the Hothamton scheme as well as keeping the nearby Lamb Inn in Steyne Street.