An ambitious master plan for the multi-million-pound regeneration of Worthing is being drawn up.

Grand schemes for the seafront and town centre are being considered as the town tries to catch up with rival resorts along the South Coast.

Borough planners are considering two rival showpiece schemes for the Grafton site, currently a multi-storey car park and underground bowling alley opposite the lido.

The car park, built more than 30 years ago, is regarded as Worthing's biggest eyesore but its days look numbered.

The first scheme shows a stepped flats complex dominated by terracotta brickwork and glass which critics have likened to the rear of a cruise liner.

There would be a footbridge linking the site to the promenade, acting as a safe feeder route from the town centre to seafront attractions such as the lido.

New shops, with an avenue of palm trees, would be built to the north, fronting Montague Street. The second scheme, which has a Portsmouth Gun Wharf Quay feel about it, features a more rounded high-rise design, with shops on the ground floor and pedestrian access to Montague Street.

Both schemes, to be served by underground parking, would transform the landscape between Marks and Spencer and the Augusta House tower block.

A small group of councillors is considering the rival designs which are likely to be officially unveiled in September.

The Grafton site is one of 17 around the town centre earmarked for redevelopment during the next five years, although pessimists believe it is more likely to take two decades.

The work would cost many millions of pounds, funded predominantly by private developers and banks. Consultants have been given £100,000 to draw up the master plan, which should be ready by May 2006.

Discussions are already well advanced for Teville Gate, where a vandal-plagued early Seventies shopping precinct was recently bulldozed.

There is talk of constructing a 24-storey block of luxury flats on the site, plus a modern cinema with several screens, a 25m swimming pool and a casino.

Council Tory leader Keith Mercer believes East Worthing should have a marina and wants to see the redevelopment of the civic car park site in Stoke Abbott Road, the former police station in Union Place and the Aquarena in Brighton Road.

But he fears land between Warwick Street and the seafront, currently dominated by a Stagecoach bus garage, the Dome Cinema and historic Regency terrace Bedford Row will be a much tougher nut to crack.

Councillor Mercer said: "It is a key site but unfortunately Stagecoach is not interested in working in partnership with us. It is a great shame because it is a massive slab of land next to the seafront and we could do a lot with it.

"I am hoping our consultants will approach Stagecoach to see whether they can get any more sense out of them."

He is in favour of high-rise development on selected sites.

Coun Mercer said: "Any change in Worthing is going to encounter opposition but we believe we have the best interests of Worthing citizens at heart.

"We are being pressed very hard by Government to achieve significant housing targets and we have lots of people who require accommodation in Worthing."

Housing would form part of the marina, helping to attract new business to the town.

Coun Mercer did not believe severe traffic problems on the congested A27 would hinder that aim.

The council was holding talks with the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), whose chairman, Jim Brathwaite, told a conference in Worthing last year: "There are a lot of good things going for Worthing. When I first moved here almost 30 years ago Worthing was definitely one of the jewels in the Sussex crown.

"What I am concerned about is that Worthing seems to have lost its impetus. It needs to get that impetus back. What's happened is that there has been a lot of investment in other parts of Sussex and Worthing seems to have stopped."

It was a theme taken up by Roy Stannard, managing director of Worthing radio station Splash FM and chairman of Worthing First, an umbrella group determined to put Worthing back on the map.

Mr Stannard said: "Worthing used to be the kind of place thatinspired at best a shrug of the shoulder and at worst a disparaging laugh.

"I remember when I moved here from Brighton the best part of two decades ago my friends smiled and said that I would have to take up bowls and start smoking a pipe.

"That perception still lingers and had to change. As part of that evolution, Worthing First was set up just over ten months ago to shake up the town economically.

"Worthing had drifted into a kind of genteel stupor which had seen sister towns such as Horsham and Eastbourne edge ahead in the municipal pride stakes.

"And yet it has the reputation of being the most profitable town in England. It plays host to five of the top ten corporations in the UK and unemployment hovers around zero.

"The town is renowned for its creativity and innovation and it is bordered to the south by a fantastic coastline and to the north by a natural 'wow' zone, the Downs.

"It also boasts excellent schools and tertiary colleges that regularly produce business leaders who go on to lead companies within the town.

"It has a committed core of business people who are fed up with with being regarded as the Aunt Sallies of the South-East."

A borough council spokesman said: "The process of preparing a draft masterplan will take place during the next nine months and the final document will be completed by May 2006."

Monday, August 8, 2005