Comment: Teville Gate timetable must be met

But a positive and welcome step forward was made yesterday, when the site’s owner, Mosaique, released a statement to update residents. Click here for the full story.

This was long overdue. It was the first time Mosaique had addressed residents since an initial statement upon purchase of the site in June 2015.

The Herald made a plea to Mosaique chief Aized Sheikh days before the latest news was released – just one of its attempts to make contact with the owners in recent months.

It followed the revelation in a Worthing Borough Council report that the timetable for progress had again slipped.

This was not an uncommon theme. The project had been repeatedly delayed, with little update other than a few lines in a council report.

It was right for the owners to speak out, rather than leave the council to effectively act as the messenger and to be shot down by rankled residents, fed up of the same old story.

Now Mosaique has broken its silence, it must follow with concrete action.

The promised public consultation must go ahead in February as planned. There can be no more delays.

There cannot be a repeat of 2015, when the firm’s statement promised public consultation by the end of the year, only for nothing to happen.

The consultation will be an opportunity to fill in the gaps, as questions do remain unanswered.

What was the reason for the delays? What can Mosaique tell us about their experience, aside from publicly-available information?

We look forward to the opportunity to quiz the development team.

New images and more details

So what was new in Mosaique’s statement?

We learned survey work had been undertaken. We learned the latest plans involved a residential-led scheme. We learned Mosaique wanted to deliver ‘enhanced public realm’.

We even had an image.

But make no mistake. Without the firm sticking to its latest timetable, the regeneration project will be in danger of joining the sizeable scrapbook of schemes sitting on the scrapheap.

For all the headlines in years gone by, residents remain rightly sceptical.