'Historic' Worthing Town Centre Buildings To Be Demolished

Divisive plans to demolish ‘historic’ town centre buildings and replace them with extra creative space and emergency accommodation have been approved.

Worthing Borough Council can now demolish 52 Ann Street and 2-7 High Street after its planning committee granted permission on Wednesday (16 February).

The scheme – which was previously costed at £4 million – will provide five emergency accommodation flats, a café, and a new ‘digital and creative hub’.

But the plans, which have been brought forward in various different iterations and were refused last year, divided the planning committee with Labour members refusing to vote on them at all.

Jim Deen (Lab, Central) said:

“My heart sank when I saw this application that looked at expanding facilities for the creative arts, but through the destruction of what little remains of Regency Worthing.

“I was even more astonished that the driving force behind this was not a greedy developer, but the council itself.

“Over many years, I fought hard to get on this council so I could stop this kind of thing happening.”

Mr Deen urged the council to ‘look outside the box’ regarding the scheme.

Discussions were lengthy and involved a recess so committee chair Noel Atkins (Con, Salvington) could seek legal advice.

Head of planning James Appleton said that, during his time at the council, he had only ever had one committee refuse to vote on an application which then resulted in an appeal.

The plans also divided opinion amongst the creative trust and businesses that use the building and various conservation societies.

Colonnade House has had ‘high occupancy levels’ with gallery space having had a near 100 per cent occupancy rate since the building opened as a cultural hub in 2016.

Sue Dare, of the Adur and Worthing Trust, spoke in favour of the expansion.

She said:

“The building has been very successful in terms of setting up new businesses and, much to our surprise, has continued to prosper even during the pandemic.

“Every business needs people with creative and technical skills to market their business and to provide an online presence to enable them to build back and to grow.

“I’ve been delighted to see Colonnade House working in close partnership with local schools and colleges.

“Expanding provision as outlined in this plan will give more of a chance for young people to stay local, and for businesses to grow in a supported way.”

But more than 20 objected to the scheme, including The Victorian Society and The Council for British Archaeology.

They argue that the buildings make an important contribution to the area’s character and ‘Worthing’s cultural heritage and identity’.

Ultimately, planning officers said the loss of the buildings – which were ruled ‘not to merit’ their status as local interest buildings in a heritage report – would be outweighed by the benefits of extending creative facilities and providing emergency accommodation.

Managing director of ECE Planning Chris Barker said it was not possible to convert the buildings to meet modern standards and therefore demolition is the only ‘viable’ option.

The council’s housing needs manager Amanda Eremie said the scheme’s temporary accommodation is much needed due to ‘accelerating’ levels of homelessness.

Ms Eremie said that, since March 2019, the number of Worthing residents in temporary accommodation has more than doubled.

Conservative committee members were all in favour of the plans.

Worthing’s mayor Lionel Harman (Con, Castle) said:

“I actually like the new plan, it does give a nod to the heritage which for me sorts out the objections from last time.

“I think it’s quite commendable that the architects have taken that on board.”

The application was approved and more details can be found at the council’s planning portal using reference: AWDM/2309/21.