Public consultation on changes to Bognor Regis conservation areas is set to go ahead.
The consultation is for appraisals of the Bognor Regis Railway Station and Hotham Park conservation areas and their descriptions, and will be open to the public for four weeks.
The draft conservation area appraisals were approved for public consultation by Arun District Council’s planning policy committee at its meeting on Thursday, June 6.
Recommended changes to Hotham Park by the council see more of the park included in the area, including remains of former stables and a glasshouse used by Arun’s Parks department, saying previous disrepair of the area meant it was not included previously.
They also recommend removing houses at 22-24 Upper Bognor Road and the neighbouring Gerard Lodge, as the lodge badly imitated an Edwardian design and the homes had been ‘poorly converted’ into flats, detracting from the conservation area.
For the Railway Station area, the council recommended including the station’s former goods shed, saying it has ‘historical association’ with the station and is the last building of the original station complex not in the conservation area.
If no ‘significant’ alterations to the plans are suggested as a result of the consultation, changes to the areas could be in force by August 9, otherwise the appraisals go back to the committee for approval at its next meeting, on September 29.
Arun’s 29 conservation area descriptions have not been reviewed since 2000, with the two Bognor Regis appraisals a part of an effort for the areas to be ‘updated and significantly enhanced’.
