Councillors ‘will continue to mention’ Bognor Regis car park lifts until they’re fixed

The currently out-of-order Fitzleet car park lifts, in Bognor Regis, were first raised at full council on November 10.

Councillors were reassured that the lifts, which give access to the town centre and Morrisons from the car park,  would be fixed ‘as soon as possible’.

David Edwards (Con, Felpham East) said: “Please be assured that officers are doing all they can to make sure the lifts are brought back into service as soon as possible.

“But they are reliant on the availability of third parties.”

Amanda Worne (LDem, Yapton) was not reassured as she experienced parking problems first-hand.

During an environment committee meeting on Wednesday (November 17) she said: “Most of the time those lifts appear to be out of order.

“So the top floors of that car park can’t be used because people cannot go up and down the stairs carrying their shopping.

“Half of the car park by the theatre in Bognor Regis is taken up by the ice rink and that’s going to be out of use for a period of weeks.

“I myself tried to park in there today and it was impossible to find a space.”

Ms Worne wanted assurances that the lift would be fixed by the busy Christmas period.

A council spokesperson previously said that Fitzleet would be one of the car parks taking up the strain on spaces from the temporary ice rink.

The lifts are out of order due to an issue with the alarm system and cannot be reopened until a new phone line is installed by BT.

Mr Edwards repeated that the lifts would hopefully be working ‘in the very near future’ with work due to start on Monday (November 22).

But David Huntley (Ind, Pagham) said councillors ‘will continue to mention the lift until it’s actually working’.

“We can’t call ourselves inclusive as a council if we have a car park with broken lifts,” he said.

The same lifts have also been out of order in the past but this was before they were refurbished.

An Arun District Council spokesperson confirmed that the lifts remain closed and council contractors will be on site on November 22.

But the lifts will require further work and the spokesperson explained: “The fault requires a BT landline to be installed to the building and we have been working with BT/Openreach and Morrisons to resolve this issue.

“Our contractors will be attending the site on Monday 22 November to install the metal conduit from the proposed BT point to the lift motor room ready for BT/Openreach to make the final connection.

“We do not yet have a date for when BT/Openreach will make the final connection but we are working with them to ensure this can be done as soon as possible.”