Former seafront amusement arcade to become flats

Disused floors in a seafront building are to be turned into 21 flats.

The upper floors at Connaught House at 32-34 Marine Parade, Worthing, are to be converted into homes, while the former Connaught Leisure Adult and Family Amusements arcade on the ground floor will have a change of use to flexible business and commercial use.

Twelve one-bed and eight two-bed apartments will be spread across the first to third floors, including roof extensions to accommodate a new three-bed penthouse on what will be a fourth floor.

The Arcades Fish Restaurant at 32 Marine Parade will remain and be expanded into the neighbouring empty premises, with the basement bar under 33-34 to remain unchanged.

No affordable housing is planned within the development, with the developers saying they had approached six affordable housing providers so far and found none wanting to take on the development,

Worthing Borough Council requires at least 20 per cent affordable housing in new developments of ten or more homes. Instead, the developers are to make a financial contribution of £340,000 to the council for affordable housing off-site.

The plans were approved by the council’s planning committee on Wednesday. Councillor Samuel Theodoridi said it would be a good use of the building and that a financial contribution in place of affordable housing was better than "nothing at all".

He said: “Personally, I have no issue with this application. We obviously need more housing and I’m pleased that the developer has made efforts to reach out to social housing providers."

Councillor Richard Novak said the plans were a "great improvement" on the existing, largely empty building. He said: “Bringing that building back into use is a great opportunity. It’s retaining the character of the existing building, it’s providing much-needed accommodation.”

He raised some concerns over loading bays and the retention of a cycle path, which council officers said could be dealt with by imposing conditions on planning approval.

Councillor Hillary Schan said she had concerns about the lack of affordable housing on site, saying it was already lacking in the town centre. She said: “People are really concerned about the town centre, people becoming priced out of and it becoming a centre of luxury – seafront apartments, penthouses, that kind of thing. The problem with the contribution is that we can not be sure where that will be contributed to and when. So what we are very much at risk of is having a town centre full of luxury accommodation that’s too expensive for the people of Worthing, and the people of Worthing are pushed to the outskirts of the town.”