Chance for Bognor businesses to make voices heard

The initial session will take place from 6pm-7pm in the town hall. It will enable businesses in the town to meet to discuss their ideas and to decide if they want to set up a group. The meeting follows the most comprehensive survey of town centre firms for decades by Arun and Bognor councils. It showed 39 per cent of those who took part would be interested in forming a group that represented town centre traders. Of those, 61 per cent considered such groups to be an important way of expressing their views and being part of the decision-making process. Norman Dingemans, who is in charge of Arun’s economic and cultural development work, said: “It is encouraging so many of the town’s businesses got involved with the survey. “Many said they wanted a way to make their voices heard and the survey results are the first step in making that happen. “We hope they will continue to be involved with future work to make the town centre more attractive to shoppers and visitors.” Town council policy and resources committee chairman Adam Cunard said: “It is vital we have the involvement of local businesses to take this forward.” The survey’s findings were released by the councils this week. The survey was carried out on their behalf by Qa Research of York in February. A total of 188 businesses in an area from the library to Queensway and from High Street to the railway station took part in the questionnaire. Their wish list is topped by a greater variety of shops, better promotion of the town centre and improving its look and feel. Free or cheap parking, safety and security and cleanliness were also listed as priorities. Many businesses said they wanted to see more events held to encourage people into the town centre. Other suggestions put forward by the town’s traders included maximising the potential of the seafront and the town’s links with Butlin’s to exploit future opportunities. Cllr Dingemans said: “We are closely analysing all the results. “They will feed into future decisions around improvements for the town centre, how money is spent in Bognor and on what, and the planned regeneration of the town to ensure it really does benefit not just all who live and visit the town but all who work in it as well.”