Guildbourne Centre is the wrong location for an addiction facility

ON the face of it, there may seem sense in combining Worthing's drug/alcohol counselling and advice services in just one location, instead of being sited in different locations around the town centre.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Nov 2009, 12:03 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 01:06 BST

That seems to be the rationale behind the borough council officers' recommendation to the planning committee to approve Addaction's application to centralise such a facility in the Guildbourne Centre '” bang in the middle of Worthing's main shopping area.

Yet...

It is several months since the idea was first proposed, and those residents and businesses who would be in close proximity to the new venture have had time to come to terms with the concept '” if they are prepared to.

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Instead, there has been growing antagonism to the prospect of a regular stream of "clients" attending the centre (about 40 a day), fuelling fears of how this development might affect the lives and livelihoods of the Guildbourne "community".

When the borough's development control committee meets on Tuesday, November 18to decide the application, it should take full account of the wide breadth of the objectors.

In addition to nearly 40 residents of flats above the shopping mall, who signed a protest petition, most of the shop lease-holders have added their weight to opposing the plan.

Plus, 38 licensed taxi drivers feel their vital town centre trade would be affected by public aversion to being taken to a place visited habitually by the clientele who would be attending the advice centre.

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The Herald acknowledges, of course, the need for victims of drug and alcohol abuse to have a base where their addictions can be addressed and treated.

But the Guildbourne Centre is not the place to serve this purpose.

It was built as a combined shopping/residential complex, the present use of which should not be changed to cater for a facility which would cause unease for so many people.

We know the application would solve a problem for the Guildbourne management, and for Addaction.

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But other premises, in a less sensitive location, should be found.

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