Bognor Regis Town Centre Management Business Plan

Bognor Regis TOWN CENTRE MANAGEMENT

BOGNOR REGIS TOWN CENTRE MANAGEMENT

BUSINESS PLAN 2014 – 2018

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Contents What is a Town Centre Management Plan?

3 What are our key aims and objectives?

4 Bognor Regis Town Centre Management Plan 4 Introduction 4 Themes 5 1. A welcoming town centre 5 2. A well-known town centre 6 3. A town centre where businesses thrive 7 4. A regenerating town centre 8 Monitoring Progress 9 Contact 10

Foreword This Plan is a big step in the journey of Bognor Regis.

Delivering this Town Centre Management Plan will have an impact on which direction the journey goes.

Remember why we are doing this, look at the bigger picture and concentrate on the issues and not just the processes. This Town Centre Management Plan will help the Bognor Regis Town Centre Partnership Board, wider stakeholders, residents, visitors and investors see whether our plans are deliverable and ensure we have the resources we need to be successful.

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What is a Town Centre Management Plan?

This plan is a starting point to help us set out who we are and what we intend to do. It will enable us to create a shared vision and identity; it can start life as a single sentence or word stating why we formed the partnership; it will help us to stay focused on what's important, as well as simply and clearly communicating our goals to the outside world.

Over time, this Plan should evolve to help guide Partnership members by detailing what sort of schemes we’ll be delivering, how these will run and who in the Partnership will take a lead where necessary. This plan will give us direction, but will remain flexible and be under annual review in order to respond new opportunities and challenges.

It's an important tool in getting the most out of our money, finding new sources of income and generally drumming up support amongst the wider stakeholders and community. By writing down our vision and clear objectives, we can quickly focus our efforts on delivering great projects for Bognor Regis Town Centre.

Town Centre Management Plan will give us the confidence to: • provide leadership to Bognor Regis Town Centre • give the Partnership Board a structure, with clear goals for everyone to focus on

• convince potential funders to back Bognor Regis Town Centre • convince people and partners that this Partnership is worth working with, especially, business, investors, and general public and local media Bognor Regis Town Centre Management is a partnership made up of University of Chichester, Bognor Regis Traders Association, Bognor Regis Town Council, Arun District Council, Butlin’s and Bognor Regis Chamber of Commerce.

Our Vision is: To become a premier seaside town, building on its culture, heritage, and traditions whilst fully embracing modernity 3

What are our key aims and objectives?

Aim: To deliver a vibrant, attractive, safe, accessible and sustainable town centre. Working in partnership, create a town centre where, living, working, doing business, shopping and spending leisure time are pleasant experiences for all.

Objectives: • Increase the town’s competitiveness and ensure it is a destinationof choice for business, visitors and residents • To bring people living locally back into Bognor Regis town centre by providing the offer they will respond to, • Create a better and more integrated shopping area that links seamlessly with the seafront by : • Enhancing the competitiveness of the retail offer • Improving management of the public domain (cleaner, safer, greener) • Satisfying the needs of all users of the retail district

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Bognor Regis Town Centre Management Plan Introduction The purpose of this business plan is to set out the objectives that the Bognor Regis Town Centre Partnership wants to achieve over the next four years. This business plan has been put together following research amongst town centre users and business planning sessions with members of the Partnership Board and town centre businesses.

The delivery of this business plan is the collective responsibility of the Board members and plays a crucial role in improving the offer, appeal and vitality of the town centre.

The Board employs a Town Centre Manager to lead on the delivery of the business plan and to deal with dayto-day issues at a strategic and operational level

Surveys and interviews suggest that businesses and residents would like to see the following things in the town centre to make it even more special.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Cleaner Safer More welcoming Better parking More cultural, arts and sports activities and events More and better restaurants A good quality market More quality independent retailers Specialist food shops A department store High end fashion outlets

Themes To achieve the vision, aims and objectives set out above, four themes have been identified.

1. A welcoming town centre: visual appearance, clean, safe, well maintained & welcoming 2. A well-known town centre: through marketing, promotion, quality events and activities 3. A town centre where businesses thrive 4. A regenerating, developing, accessible and resilient town centre The priorities within each theme are set out in this document, following an assessment of town centre users and an analysis of the key issues and opportunities in the town centre.

1. A welcoming town centre: visual appearance – clean, safe, well maintained & welcoming environment Although the feedback from users and traders is that the town centre is on an upward trajectory following recent public realm works, there remain significant issues with the overall quality of the built environment, both public and privately owned. Some parts of the town centre are grimy, unpleasant, not maintained, unsafe, aggressive, with paint peeling away, rusting and grubby shop fronts, moss/weeds growing out of gutters and pavements.

Tackling these residual problems is critical to providing the existing customer base who has continued to support

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the town a better shopping & social environment. It will also help in attracting a wider range of people to the centre who will dwell for longer. Overall standards have to be raised to ensure the town centre is clean, safe, well maintained and welcoming.

scope to further improve how people feel after dark and this will be important reason to develop the evening economy.

Crime levels are low compared to national levels and in general people do feel safe during the daytime. However, crime levels are relatively high compared to neighbouring towns of a similar size in Sussex.1 Furthermore the presence of street drinkers and homeless people make for an intimidating experience which adds to the fear of crime and negative perceptions of the town. Street drinkers often congregate outside shop fronts, alleyways and parks where families are trying to take leisure with small children. In addition, some of the popular retailers are targeted for low level and bulk shoplifting to mainly to fund drug habits and supplement low income levels.

The main retailer to be targeted is Morrisons for their alcohol and meat; Boots, Superdrug, Wilkinsons and Poundland are also routinely targeted for their products as well. During the evening and late night the town quickly becomes deserted providing an unnerving, oppressive maybe even a threatening feeling due to the low levels of people, poor lighting, few businesses open and the presence of the homeless community. There are concerns about safety in the evening - but this is in line with other town centres. However, there is significant

• We will liaise with relevant Councils, landlords, businesses, Sussex Police to ensure the town centre is a more cleaner, well maintained, safer and more welcoming place • We will work with freeholders, landlords, leaseholders and tenants in the town centre to develop opportunities for investment in the short term to clean, tidy and undertake maintenance works • We will encourage owners and agents to make permanent and temporary improvements to vacant properties which will improve the appearance of the town centre to make it more attractive to shoppers and reduce the impact of any long-term vacancies • We will work with relevant authorities and owners to improve the gateways to the town centre with definitive entrance markers to make the town more welcoming • Support the Shop Watch and Pub Watch initiatives • Support the Community Safety Partnership to continue the reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour in the day and evenings and reduce fear of crime

What will the partnership do?

2. A well-known town centre – Big Up Bognor!

Communications & marketing, quality promotions and events We have to be proud of the best that Bognor Regis currently offers and the work we will be doing to enhance it. How are we going to tell the public, local businesses, investors, media and community groups about this? It’s essential to bring more people on board to continue the work that is already taking place, communicate and to engage with local people and the wider public. We can’t control everything, but we can control the messages, pictures and videos we put out.

The current offer in the core retail area is a value shopping offer serving the existing customer base. What we need to ensure is that this offer is the best quality it can be for the prices existing shoppers are willing to pay, and aim to attract higher quality businesses to the town.

The dichotomy is that there is a mismatch between the current retail and leisure offer and the requirements of the more affluent residents and increasingly newer residents who commute out of Bognor Regis for work.

This is also true of some visitors, tourists and students; and those of the non-resident workers who commute into Bognor Regis and who do not stay in the evening.

The challenge for the Partnership is to stimulate and encourage a mix which: • Provides for the needs of long-standing local residents both affluent and deprived, Butlin’s visitors and students

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• Convinces newer residents that the town centre has something for them in terms of retail, events, leisure, dining and entertainment • Is attractive enough to make workers in the town centre want to stay on and linger after work • Attract people from a wider catchment who currently are unaware of what Bognor Regis has to offer and have not visited the town or Butlin’s for a long time Events and activities in the town centre using its public spaces, buildings, streets and squares is what sets it apart from the internet and out of town shopping centres experiences. Bognor Regis town centre has a wide cultural offer including Bognor Regis Museum, the Picturedrome, The Regis Centre Theatre, the Pier, the architectural heritage, ROX festival, South Downs Folk Festival, Bognorphenia, the seafront illuminations and many other cultural and sporting organisations events.

They provide glimpses of the wider cultural and creative energy that exists in Bognor Regis. Much more could and should be done to harness this energy and co-ordinate events to make the town centre more attractive to existing and newer residents and to visitors from further afield. We need to maximise the cultural offering in the town centre and develop the annual programme of events, special occasions and markets to raise the quality, increase visitor numbers and dwell time and begin to change perceptions of the town.

The Partnership will concentrate on delivering a small number of events to improve the cultural offer in the town centre; support and piggy back off existing events and bring more activities into the town centre.

What the Partnership will do: • We will enhance the existing calendar of events by organising new, quality events to complement the existing programme and work with existing events to try and drive up quality where necessary • We will promote the town centre as a family-friendly value shopping offer to existing residents, students and Butlin’s visitors.

• We will promote the town to more affluent residents through strategic events • We will carry out promotional activity and publicity stunts • Put on quality events such as Students Fresher’s week welcome, Christmas events, Healthy High Street/wellbeing events, Victoriana Day/markets, independents day, retailer master classes, markets, film festivals, live entertainment, town centre sports day, Aerial Birdman in the precinct, Light Night, The Blake Trail, Moon Dance Party – Summer/Winter Solstice, • Undertake a place branding exercise to establish the brand of the town centre going forward • We will use all available communication channels to shift perceptions about Bognor Regis, increasing awareness of the range and the best of what Bognor Regis has on offer

3. A town centre where businesses thrive Bognor Regis is positioned high in Arun District Council’s shopping hierarchy in terms of multiple retailer representation, but considerably below larger neighbouring centres such as Chichester, Worthing, Brighton, Horsham, Havant, Portsmouth in West Sussex and Hampshire. We have significant leakage of comparison goods expenditure to Chichester and Portsmouth. It is important to continue to offer a good mix of lower and higher order non-food shopping and remain competitive providing traditional and modern shopping floorspace in an attractive environment. There has been significant improvement in the reputation of Bognor Regis as a place to do business among major retail operators such as Next, Sainsbury’s and M&S food, and this needs to be replicated in an improved offering within the town centre.

Arun District Council commissioned a Retail Needs Study in 20132 to look at current and future need for retail development, including projections for 2015 and 2020.

The study identified that projected future growth in expenditure from increasing disposable incomes and population growth would provide opportunities to improve the range and quality of shopping and leisure facilities, and identified potential for future need for comparison goods floorspace The study identifies capacity for additional comparison (bulky and nonbulky) goods floorspace in Bognor Regis as follows:

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Location Bognor Regis

2012 0

Comparison Goods 2017 2021 2026 0 1,577 5,123

2031 9,824

Floorspace Capacity – Comparison Goods Sq. m (net)

What will the partnership do?

• We will undertake a feasibility study for a Business Improvement District and decide whether it is a viable option for the Bognor Regis • We will encourage specialist independent shops and high quality comparison goods outlets • We will encourage greater diversity and quality in the dining offer, both daytime and evening • We will support and pursue inward investment initiatives aiming to attract new businesses or enable existing businesses to expand.

• Hold a regional retail and property conference to promote Bognor Regis to demonstrate to businesses, investors, commercial landlords and property agents what Bognor Regis town centre has to offer and what opportunities are available • We will respond to traders’ issues and act as a channel to access partner services such as the Hot House Programme at the University of Chichester, student placements, planning, licensing, training, environmental health, councils, Police and other mainstream services

4. A regenerating, developing, accessible and resilient town centre Making the Town Centre a more attractive proposition for residents, visitors, businesses and investors be helped by a number of spatial development opportunities and external factors that will arise in the period of the business plan. These could include: Railway Station to Seafront Public Realm Improvements: Funding has been awarded to the town towards town centre public realm improvements from the Coastal Communities Fund to install new paving and lighting, seating, street furniture and planting between the station towards the seafront. Phase one of the improvements in London Road are complete and work on other phases will continue until 2016. The overall investment in the town centre public realm now totals £2.66million.

Regis Centre/Hothamton Regeneration Sites This is a key regeneration and development opportunity for the town. Currently Arun District Council has invited interested parties to suggest complimentary and commercially viable schemes for consideration by the Council. In addition to this, public consultation will be undertaken in 2015, with the results of both initiatives being available in summer 2015.

Bognor Regis Neighbourhood Plan Bognor Regis Town Council has developed a draft Neighbourhood Plan which went out for consultation in

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winter 2014. It provides a number of strategic policies and actions that the town along with wider stakeholders need to take to ensure the future economic, economic and social viability of the town.

Local Enterprise Partnership Coast to Capital Bognor Regis is part of the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) via the Coastal West Sussex Partnership. The LEP has granted £13m towards the A29 re-alignment between the new Bognor Regis Relief road and the A27 Enterprise Bognor Regis is an area north of the town centre on the A29 which has been identified as a priority location for industrial and commercial investment as it has, according to the proposed investment plans, the potential to accommodate 5,000 jobs in 200 businesses.

Sites included are the LEC Airfield, Oldlands Farm, Salt Box and Rowan Way. In August 2014, the car-maker Rolls Royce announced plans for a new technology and logistics centre in Bognor Regis, eight miles from its main production plant at Goodwood. It will employ about 200 people.

The Enterprise Bognor Regis area has also applied to government via the LEP for Enterprise Zone status and the decision is awaited. The University of Chichester has recently been awarded £8million from the Growth Deal via the LEP to launch a new Engineering and Digital Technology Park at the Bognor Regis Campus, providing cutting edge skills to 500 students per year. The new Engineering and Digital Technology Park will include

an Institute for Sustainable Enterprise and a Centre for Digital Technology, located in a new signature building with a prominent gateway entrance. It enables the creation of a Research Centre for Sustainable Operations and Departments of Data Science and Advanced Engineering & Design.

The Pier: The pier is a much loved heritage asset, although it has fallen into disrepair. The recently formed Pier Trust is keen to see the piers restored to its former glory and become a major visitor attraction once again. Funding is being sought from various organisations to begin the work that is necessary.

Butlin’s Bognor Regis: Butlin’s is a big part of Bognor Regis attracting an average of 5000 visitors every week all year round and providing hundreds of jobs. The resort has recently undergone a multi-million pound upscaling transformation with new hotels, bars, restaurants and leisure activities.

The owners, Bourne Leisure, have more plans in the pipeline to build more hotel accommodation and leisure attractions to make the most of the seafront. Butlin’s are trying to deliver a great leisure experience and positively improve the brand and image of the resort.

Picturedrome: An extension to the Picturedrome to house a 130 seat auditorium is underway. Proposals will be submitted to Bognor Regis Town Council to invest £850,000 into the scheme.

Parking Parking and access is one of the main negative perceptions of the town. However, one of the strongest competitive advantages that Bognor Regis has in relation to other town centres is the ready availability of affordable parking. Bognor Regis currently has 1085 offstreet parking and 80 disabled spaces in the town centre area. While there can be a conflict with environmental objectives, attracting car drivers will be a way to attract new visitors to the town. The impact of traffic and parking fundamentally affects the viability of the town centre as a leisure shopping environment, and its management is key for future investment. There is currently a “2 hour free parking” scheme operating in three car parks which has greatly increased the attractiveness of the town to shoppers.

Seafront Strategy 2010 A Seafront Strategy has been developed to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Bognor Regis seafront and to prepare a co-ordinated programme of possible developments and projects that have been tested and consulted on with the public. The strategy provides a reference point for future developers and investors.

Proposals include new seafront concessions, sandpit area, watersports centre and events.

The Old Town This is currently a quiet corner of the town opposite the pier leading to the seafront which has a number of heritage and architectural assets. The area is

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currently undergoing major redevelopment to many of the buildings which will create new retail, cafes, restaurants, workspace and housing. Local businesses and stakeholders would like to see this area turned into a cultural/heritage quarter to attract more visitors and improve the vibrancy of the place. Proposals include pedestrianisation, refurbished street furniture, lighting, signage and gateways to improve the public realm and further enhance the character of the area.

What the partnership will do: • Spatial Development: support town centre and seafront regeneration and master planning??

• We will work with all relevant organisations to ensure new developments complement each other and fit within an overall strategy for the town centre.

• We will work with the developers and authorities to minimise disruption to businesses during construction phases • We will progress initiatives to improve The Old Town, Queensway and Sudley Road Entrance into London Road • We will promote the availability of extensive, convenient and free/cheap parking • We will campaign for improved signage and support the implementation of a wayfinding system in the town

Monitoring Progress Outcomes By 2018 we expect to see a town centre that is clean, safe, welcoming and has a wider, better quality retail and leisure offer, which is attractive to both new and long-standing residents and to the people who visit and work in Bognor Regis. It will have a richer leisure and dining offer and evening economy, and is known for a traditional/diverse and exciting cultural and arts offer.

In order to monitor the health of the town centre a number of key performance indicators will be used to measure change including: • • • • • • • •

Numbers and percentage of vacant properties Condition of town centre properties Average rental charges Footfall statistics Sales trends Crime figures Customer/Visitor satisfaction levels To achieve a Business Improvement District for Bognor Regis or alternative sustainability strategy has been successfully set-up

These performance measures are included within the attached annual Work Programme which will be refreshed each year.

Contact Bognor Regis Town Centre Manager University of Chichester

07467 145 922 Toyubur@bognorregistcm.co.uk

@bognorregistcm

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(Recorded Crime Data by Community Safety Partnership area- 2012/13 and 2013/14. (Excel sheet 711Kb)) http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/search/index.html?pageSize=50&sortBy=none&sortDirection=none&newquery=west+sussex&nscl=Crime+in+England+and+Wales http://www.arun.gov.uk/mediaFiles/downloads/88187584/Arun_District_Retail_Study_2013_April_2013_FINAL_VERSION.pdf