BILLY BUTLIN’S Bognor Regis holiday camp will celebrate a milestone birthday tomorrow.
But 65 years after the famous Redcoats first welcomed families to the resort on July 2, 1960, the once thriving seaside town has been branded the WORST in Britain.
In a damning survey by consumer magazine Which?, seaside town Bognor scored a measly 36 per cent approval rate[/caption]
A glance around the high street reveals boarded-up shopfronts, peeling paintwork and a host of vape stores[/caption]
The beach is beautiful but just one street back it’s all rubble and boarded-up shopfronts, says Gary Markwell, Reform group leader for West Sussex County Council[/caption]
In a damning survey by consumer magazine Which?, it scored a measly 36 per cent approval rate.
This compares with 84 per cent for Bamburgh, Northumberland, which topped the poll
Bognor, which hosted King George V in 1929 as he recovered from lung surgery, was slammed as dirty and rundown. Maybe the King would have agreed, having famously said “bugger Bognor” when asked to bestow the suffix “Regis” on the town.
The West Sussex town’s beach rating came in at just two stars out of five, while the seafront, food and drink offerings, tourist attractions, scenery, shopping, parking, peace and quiet and value for money received one star each.
Considering Princess Diana used to spend her family holidays in an estate nearby, it is a devastating fall from grace for the town.
But when we visited on a sweltering Sunday, many furious locals and visitors hit back at the Bognor bashing.
There were hordes of sun seekers flocking to the shingle beach and feasting on fish and chips as they made the most of one of the hottest days of the year so far.
Bikini-wearing Olivia Martin, a 27-year-old accountant from Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, was sunbathing with her pals.
‘Bad jokes’
She told us: “I’m really surprised by that report, there are definitely far worse beach resorts around.
“It’s peaceful here and I haven’t seen any street drinkers or homeless people like you do further down the coast in Brighton and Worthing.
“It’s the first time I’ve been to Bognor but I’ll definitely be back.”
Local paddleboarder Malcolm Nisse, 57, grew up in Bognor and was quick to defend his hometown.
He said: “The problem is this town has been the butt of bad jokes for years.
“Like any seaside town it has seen better days. Yes, it is worn in places but there are lots of lovely houses and it’s a great place to raise a family.
“People are quick to complain but other places are far more rundown and don’t get the bad press we get.”
Yet while there were plenty of families having good old-fashioned fun in the sun, immigration, crime and the “Benidorm boom” — cheap package holidays to sunny Spanish hotspots — have hit the town hard.
And the decades of decline are clear to see. A swathe of former bed and breakfasts along the promenade have been converted into a grim patchwork of crumbling HMOs, halfway houses and temporary accommodation.
The high street has certainly seen better days. A glance around reveals boarded-up shopfronts, peeling paintwork and a host of vape stores, cash converters and bookies. And the ornate Victorian pier has fallen into disrepair.
Like many such coastal towns around the country, Nigel Farage’s Reform Party has capitalised by winning council seats.
In April, Reform’s Giuliano Leo Pinnelli secured a seat on the town council after a by-election.
“Like all seaside towns, it’s been chronically neglected,” explained Gary Markwell, Reform group leader for West Sussex County Council and one of its four Reform UK members.
“There are frustrations at the lack of vision. The beach is beautiful but just one street back it’s all rubble and boarded-up shopfronts.
“Along with a rise in immigration, largely from eastern Europe, there has been an increase in shoplifting, fighting and anti-social behaviour.
“There was even a drug-related fatal stabbing on the beach a few months ago, and a teenager caught with a machete.
“People around here perceive the police as too soft. They don’t turn up or don’t do anything.
“People are fed up of seeing someone getting a custodial sentence for posting on Facebook or tweeting while knife crime is ignored.”
The beachfront Waverley pub was doing a brisk trade at the weekend, with live music and every table taken for lunch.
But landlord Rob Chamberlain agreed that the number of former offenders and immigrants being housed in Bognor is testing the town to breaking point.
There are frustrations at the lack of vision. The beach is beautiful but just one street back it’s all rubble and boarded-up shopfronts
Reform’s Giuliano Leo Pinnelli
He told us: “There’s been a problem with illegal immigration which has changed the culture of the town. Many don’t learn the language or get involved, which makes some people hostile.
“It’s become a dumping ground for people with drug and alcohol problems.”
And Tracey Alderton, a resident for 26 years, is concerned about smashed shop windows and rough sleepers.
Asked if she lived in Bognor, Tracey sighed, “unfortunately”. The 63-year-old, who owns a business with her husband, said: “We’ve had so much crime. The police do absolutely nothing. I have not got anything good to say.
“They are trying to improve it but I don’t think the plants are good, they look like weeds.
Amy and Amelia Steggall soaking up the sun on Bognor’s pebble beach[/caption]
Bikini-wearing Olivia Martin, a 27-year-old accountant from Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, says it’s ‘peaceful’ in Bongor[/caption]
The beach is still a big draw for families[/caption]
“They need to start with the crime problem. Until they address these problems it’s not going to improve.
“We’ve still got somebody sleeping in the doorways. At one point we had loads of them. We were frightened to walk down here. The major thing is the crime.”
The town ranks in the top five most dangerous towns in West Sussex, with 138 crimes per 1,000 people in 2023.
Immigration is a political hot potato here, but Reform councillor Trevor Bence insists the issue is not confined to Bognor. “I’m sick to the back teeth of people knocking Bognor,” he said.
“It’s no different to every other coastal resort in the entire country. This report is totally unfair.”
Either way, huge investment is already on the horizon.
‘Lots of drunks’
Work has started on an £8million regeneration of The Arcade shopping centre, £15million is being spent on renovating the Alexandra Theatre and there are plans for a new secondary school.
Building work on a £13million, 150-room Premier Inn is under way and the town’s last remaining nightclub is reopening.
Deputy Mayor Paul Wells said: “Cheap package holidays and a lack of investment came at the same time, creating a perfect storm for Bognor, but now investment is starting to trickle through.”
Every year, more than 100,000 visitors visit Bognor over the summer months, swamping the population of 64,000.
Among them last weekend was heath worker Gemma Nolan, 37, from Coulsdon, South London, who was staying in a caravan park with her partner Aaron, her sisters and their children.
They prefer Bognor’s traditional bucket-and-spade charm to better known destinations such as Brighton or Blackpool.
They need to start with the crime problem. Until they address these problems it’s not going to improve
Local resident Tracey Alderton
“My mum used to come here,” she told us.
“I can see why people complain about the lack of facilities compared to bigger towns but that means it’s always quieter here, and better value for money, and we like that. Bognor definitely needs modernising but that suits us because we’re old school.”
Young women wearing bikinis and swimming costumes pose beside the swimming pool at Butlins holiday resort in Bognor Regis, England in 1964[/caption]
The town ranks in the top five most dangerous towns in West Sussex, with 138 crimes per 1,000 people in 2023[/caption]
While holidaymakers are happy, many locals maintain that their hometown has been overlooked for public funding in the past and that it has been left behind by Arun District Council in favour of neighbouring Littlehampton.
Cleaner Lesley Barnes, 70, criticised the length of time the £1.39million regeneration of the seafront to widen pavements and replace parking spaces with flowerbeds had taken.
“It’s been months,” she said. “We don’t go down to the seafront. When you live here it is not something you do.”
Her friend, retired traffic warden Mary Clark, 70, agreed the town has gone downhill in the 29 years she has lived there.
She said: “I just think the town is filthy. It could definitely do with a clean-up all around the railway station. There’s lots of drunks outside everywhere.
“There are a lot of empty shops. There’s a lot of shoplifting. You don’t see a lot of police any more, you don’t see anybody around.
“All the money just goes to Littlehampton.
“All these vape shops . . . it has gone downhill a lot.”
The residents may not be happy, but Met Office records show that Bognor averages around 1,900 hours of sunshine a year, making it right up there as one of the sunniest spots in the country.
Bognor is also home to a new Amazon distribution centre, which has boosted job opportunities, as well as the University of Chich-ester’s engineering campus.
And then, of course, there is still Butlin’s, which provides a huge boost to the local economy all year round. Its Big Weekender events frequently draw 5,000 people to the town to see headline acts such as Stephen Mulhern, Peter Andre, Wet Wet Wet, Tony Hadley, Blue, Five and DJ Spoony.
Friends Holly Carter, Lewis Harvey and Kieran Webb, all 29, were enjoying a relaxing break at Butlin’s for the first time on the weekend.
And though they found the pier “sad”, Holly, a psychologist, had a simple suggestion . . .
“Everything just needs a new coat of paint and then it would look a million times better.”
The decades of decline are clear to see[/caption]
Holly Carter said it’ll look ‘a million times better’ if Bognor just had a new coat of paint[/caption]
GIVE TOWN A CHANCE
By Lisa Minot, Head of Travel
BASHING Bognor smacks of pure laziness to me.
Like many other traditional seaside towns, the rise of cheap package holidays abroad and lack of investment have definitely taken their toll on what was once the jewel of the South Coast.
Yes, it’s a long way from its glory days, but with the thriving Butlin’s providing employment for many locals and a multi-million-pound regeneration of the seafront, it would be foolish to write it off just yet.
Public and private investment is a must and, with the likes of Margate and Folkestone in nearby Kent, we have seen just how rundown seaside towns can turn their fortunes around if this happens.
Bognor Regis still has a vital role to play in allowing families on lower incomes a safe, sunny and good-value break.
We should be applauding its efforts to invest and improve – and not merely focus on the negatives.
