Decades of decline are to be reversed with a £100 million regeneration programme.

Property developer St Modwen has been chosen to redevelop Bognor, 70 years after King George V condemned the town with his dying words: "Bugger Bognor."

The firm has already put life back into depressed town centres across Britain, drawing investment and boosting property prices.

Once planning permission is granted, construction will start at the eyesore Hothampton and Regis Centre sites.

They will be replaced with sleek new buildings including flats, offices, shopping centres, a theatre and possibly a health centre.

The town, rated the worst coastal shopping centre in West Sussex in a survey last December, will be divided into zones for leisure, shopping, offices and homes.

Planners hope as each zone becomes established it will spark growth in the others.

It is hoped people taking jobs in the offices would buy homes in the residential zone and spend money in the retail zone's shops and restaurants.

The project is expected to bring in £100 million of investment, create at least 100 jobs and better access for buses and cyclists and encourage hundreds more people to move into the town.

Members of Arun District Council, who selected St Modwen at a meeting on Wednesday evening, hope that by 2013 the town will be transformed.

Bill Oliver, chief executive at St Modwen, said Bognor had an advantage over most of the firm's redevelopment projects because it was already an attractive seaside town.

He said: "The projects we have undertaken all have one thing in common, the public and council had a vision for something better and they set out to achieve it.

"We can improve the environment people live and work in and Bognor has the added attraction of a beautiful location."

Coun Gill Brown, Arun District Council's leader, said the decision to let St Modwen carry out the project was the culmination of seven years' work.

She said: "St Modwen have very exciting ideas for the town and were happy to think outside the box and they're an established company with a lot of experience in regeneration.

"It will make a huge difference to Bognor, which has two of the worst wards for deprivation in West Sussex."

Richard McMann, the council's head of leisure and tourism, said: "This is about Bognor being put back on top.

"There is already investment coming to the town as people are seeing this starting to happen."

Bognor police chief, Insp John Merrick said he hoped the regeneration would help improve quality of life for people in the town and instill a sense of civic pride.

Friday, July 14, 2006