Agenda item

The Chairman, Councillor Dr Walsh, will present the Minutes from the meeting of Cabinet held on 8 July 2019.

The Minutes from this meeting will be circulated separately and any recommendations will be reported to the meeting.

            [Councillor Coster re-declared a Personal Interest in this item as Vice-Chairman of the Bognor Regis Civic Society.]

            The Chairman, Councillor Dr Walsh, presented the Minutes from the meeting of Cabinet held on 8 July 2019.

            Statements and questions were then made by a number of councillors in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 13 in relation to Minute 76 (Pavilion Park Project, Bognor Regis).

            Firstly, Councillor Chapman who wanted clarification that the present Pavilion Park design would be included with the two other future schemes being proposed. Councillor Dr Walsh clarified that this was not the case.

            Councillor Gunner, following on from Councillor Chaman’s question, asked how much money did this administration intend on spending on seeing this reach fruition? A second question put forward to Councillor Oppler asked whether he would be sharing the results of the Liberal Democrat survey that was completed on the Pavilion Park scheme.   Councillor Oppler responded that on 2 May 2019 at the District elections, a clear choice was presented to the electors in Bognor Regis regarding Pavilion Park and the Sunken Garden site that by voting Liberal Democrat that the much-loved garden would be saved. It was an election promise that was made and one that had now been kept.  He confirmed that the Council would continue to go out to consultation to ensure that the public were able to have a meaningful say regarding future plans for the Sunken Gardens. He also stated that in response to Councillor Gunner’s other question, the survey he was referring to was a hugely successful Liberal Democrat survey on which he had no plans of sharing with the opposition.

            Councillor Dendle stated that in his view Councillor Oppler did not know what the public in the District thought and a survey might not have been the best way to have come to a definitive conclusion on this project anyway, as having done some research on social media he found that people were generally happy for the work to have continued on this project. He confirmed that he felt more consultation was absolutely needed to understand exactly what people thought on the matter.

            Councillor Charles stated that he had always worked on evidence and he had not seen any evidence from Councillor Oppler. The work and progress on Pavilion Park Project had been stopped by the new administration within days of the election result, the money had already been spent, the consultation had already taken place.  He asked how had the new administration had been allowed to stop the project given that the money had already been spent?

            Councillor Coster stated that he did not feel that any meaningful consultation had taken place previously and he was in support of what people were being offered now for the site as it was a true reflection of the meaning of consultation as it gave people options to choose what people would like to see happen to this site.

            In responding, Councillor Dr Walsh advised Members to refer to the minutes which set out the three options that the Cabinet would consider being subject to public consultation, which had not happened yet.   Councillor Dr Walsh stated that that the regeneration of Bognor Regis must be moved forward.   In his view, the Pavilion Park Project had quite clearly been rejected by the public as the proposal incorporated 100 flats being built. He confirmed the right thing to do was to put three options to the public for consultation and then the Council would be able to move forward with the plans chosen by the public.