The Future of the Look & Sea Centre
Arun District Council will be seeking an operator to run a new café/restaurant from the whole of the Look & Sea Centre premises in Littlehampton.
Subject to planning permission, the new venture will run across the entire premises and give the right operator the chance to run a large venture in a prime location in the town.
Anyone interested in taking on the lease [likely to be a term of 25 years] to the café/restaurant will be invited to tender for this fantastic business opportunity in due course.
To replace the Visitor Experience and the Visitor Information Centre, which were both operated from the building, Arun District Council will commission educational material based on the current curriculum to support school field trips for Littlehampton. It will utilise a range of electronic promotional tools, such as tourism/local interest web and app guides to promote everything the town has to offer.
Councillor Mrs Gillian Brown, Leader of Arun District Council and Cabinet Member for Economy, said: “We have debated the best option for the future Look & Sea Centre and we firmly believe the business venture we are proposing is the right direction to go in.
“We are giving the right operator the chance to build a large, thriving business in a prime location by the River Arun, which will be great news for the town and help to boost its tourism offer.
“In place of the Visitor Experience and the Visitor Information Centre, we will be providing educational material to students about the fascinating history of Littlehampton in a more modern and relevant way.
“The Visitor Information Centre is a small, standalone operation within the building to which the Council provided an annual subsidy of £16,000. Again trends are changing and social media and the use of smartphones mean that this type of facilities is less well-used than in the past, so we believe this money
would be better spent on providing visitor information in a more contemporary way.
“As a Council facing the same funding cuts as all others up and down the country, it was imperative that we be prudent in order to get the best value for money that we can for our residents. We believe that by capitalising on the opportunity to use the entire premises as a café/restaurant/bar, while providing tourism information and education in a more modern format to move with the times, we are making the best use of this building for today and for the future.”
***This is now on hold pending further debate.***