Retail outlets plan for Lec factory site

The prospect of additional outlets for national retailers is included in the first public exhibition about the former Lec Refrigeration site.

Three options for the redevelopment of the important area along the A29 Shripney Road will go on display on Wednesday and Thursday, February 6and 7.

It will be open between 10am and 8pm on the first day and 10am and 5pm on the second. The venue will be the Regis Centre in Belmont Street.

Bersted Parish Council chairman Cllr Brian Knight welcomed moves to finally replace the derelict factory buildings.

He said: 'That site is an absolute eyesore. There's no other way you can describe it. It's very degrading to the entrance to the town. It's the main route into it and you have an eyesore which is getting worse by the day stuck on the lefthand side.'

He said he hoped the regeneration would provide plenty of jobs to replace some of those lost by Lec's demise and stop the thousands of people due to move into new homes in the next few years commuting.

The development ideas concern the site of the original Lec factory.

Next week's display will show different ways of combining these ingredients.

A final development brief detailing formal proposals for the land will be submitted to Arun District Council this spring for a decision.

Sime Darby has employed various consultants to look at issues such as land contamination, flood risk from the adjoining Aldingbourne Rife, noise and vibration and ecology.

The reports state the site is usable after remediation measures.

Raof Daud, a director of Sime Darby London, stated: 'A key finding of the technical studies is that higher-value land uses will give the best chance of viability for the successful redevelopment of this site.

'So, we ask the public to keep an open mind, as we have in approaching this exercise.'

He urged everyone with an opinion about the future of the site to visit the exhibition.

This would enable them to influence the decision about the preferred option to be included in the final development brief. The brief will seek to establish land uses for the site.

Once those have been agreed by the council, the focus will switch to finding schemes to match those uses. Planning applications will then be submitted to Arun by developers for approval.

The land is currently approved for commercial and business purposes.

The more modern northern half of the original 22-acre Lec site built in 1996 is thriving.

It was closed by Lec last spring '“ when the firm's new owner took the business to Merseyside '“ but has since become home to the two world-class businesses of publisher John Wiley and Sons and Rolls Royce logistics partner Syncreon.

n A retail database quoted in Asda's proposal for a store further north along Shripney Road shows 31 retailers wanted to come to Bognor at the end of last year to provide plenty of scope for new stores.

They include Brantano, TJ Hughes, TK Maxx, Formula One Auto and Emporio Furniture.