New flats proposed above Worthing's Montague Quarter Shopping Centre

Cayuga Developments Limited submitted plans to add up to four additional floors to the Montague Quarter Shopping Centre last month.

This would make room for up to 50 flats.

There was once a villa on the site which was demolished to make way for an Odeon cinema in the mid 1930s. It later closed in the 1980s.

If approved by Worthing Borough Council, the redevelopment would include three disabled parking spaces and storage for 50 bicycles.

No further car parking is planned as the developer believes the town centre site has easy access to public transport.

Plans show a green roof, a ‘communal hub’ within an atrium, and terraces for most flats.

Air source heat pumps would be included.

The proposed flats would be accessed via an entrance within the shopping area, and another underneath the distinctive Elisabeth Frink head sculptures which watch over Liverpool Gardens (The Desert Quartet).

The four bronze statues would remain in place and the developer says it wants to ‘increase their visibility’.

Cayuga Homes says it hopes to ‘minimise the commercial space lost’ and it is thought that no more than one shop will go (unit 11) in addition to a ‘back of house unit’ in another.

A planning statement submitted on behalf of the developer says: “Cayuga sees this as a landmark town centre regeneration development.

“Their vision for the site is for a new mixed-use development centred on the existing shopping parade known as the Montague Quarter.

“The demand for housing in Worthing and the pressures on the surrounding countryside and strategic gaps requires innovative ways to accommodate new residents and, in line with new urban thinking, this site offers the perfect opportunity to ‘intensify’ to provide a development that allows for more people to connect, work, and play within the existing urban boundary.”

At the time of writing, the plans had one objection from two residents of Liverpool Terrace who say the flats would overlook their homes.

More details can be found at the council’s planning portal using the reference: AWDM/1624/22.