Update on Bognor Regis' £12m levelling-up project to be heard in private

Arun District Council received £19.4 million from the government’s Levelling Up Fund last year.

It will help to fund two major projects, with £12.1 million going towards improvements at the Regis Centre.

The venue houses the Alexandra Theatre and Brewers Fayre pub.

It is owned by the council but is currently leased to Whitbread Plc and Arun Arts.

It is thought that negotiations over the lease – which would allow the improvement works to go ahead – are ongoing.

Now councillors will hear options for regenerating the venue, along with ‘heads of terms’ for the building.

The public and the press will be excluded from these discussions during the Policy and Finance committee on Tuesday (September 6) – but only if members vote to move into ‘exempt business’.

According to the council, this is to protect business or financial information.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked ADC if it would consider discussing the details in public or redacting sensitive information from the committee report.

But ADC’s group head of law and governance concluded that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

“While I and the council acknowledge that there is significant public interest in the regeneration of the Regis Centre site generally, we have concluded that the public interest balance lies in favour of this report being exempt at this stage,” he said.

“It is important that councillors are able to consider and debate strategic options at this stage in exempt session in order to consider all options, including any commercially or otherwise sensitive information, before moving to any public phase of options discussion.”

Independent councillor Hugh Coster (Aldwick East) believes that some information should be made public and he has since made a Freedom of Information request to ADC.

“I am becoming increasingly concerned that information relating to the Regis Centre Levelling Up funding and associated projects has been withheld from the majority of Arun councillors,” he said.

“Following discussion, some has now been released to councillors beyond the original small number of committee members.

“I also believe that most of that information should be available to the public, but it is not being released.

“OK, certain financial and personal information should be confidential, but there’s not much of that here.

“This is all stuff that local people should know about their town and what’s going on in their council.”

Mr Coster expressed concerns that the council could make an unfavourable deal with Whitbread in order to make progress on the Levelling Up project.

ADC did not wish to comment further regarding his concerns.

Mr Coster previously criticised a decision to eject him from a meeting where the Regis Centre project was discussed.

But council leader Shaun Gunner (Con, Rustington East) said that all councillors would be able to attend and speak during Tuesday’s meeting, with the details made public in due course.

“A very small percentage of the council’s work takes place in public meetings; this does not mean it is ‘secret’,” he said.