VIDEO: Dozens hit the dancefloor at Montague Palace's opening ceremony
Leader of West Sussex County Council (WSCC), Louise Goldsmith, opened the ceremony at 2pm and said it was a ‘fantastic day for everyone to come and celebrate the newly refurbed area in Worthing town centre’.
The project, which is costing around £1.2 million, has so far added a new ‘modern’ bandstand with a shell design, to create a bigger open space for public events, and includes steps on the north side of Montague Place under ‘skylar’ shelter for people to gather.
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Hide AdThe idea came from a collaboration between WSCC, Adur and Worthing Councils, Worthing Town Initiative, The Coast-to-Capital Local Enterprise Partnership, design consultants CH2M Hill and contractor Jackson Civil Engineering and the works began in January.
Montague Street is the busiest street in Worthing and in recent years the paving has started to deteriorate, with the area around Montague Place most in need of improvement in order to ensure it can compete with other local shopping centres.
Louise Goldsmith, leader of WSCC, said: “This is about opening up the whole centre of Worthing and it really exciting, not only for the community, but for the economy as well.”
Sharon Clarke, Worthing town centre manager of Worthing Town Centre Initiative attended the ceremony and said it was a really exciting day for Worthing.
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Hide AdShe added: “It is the first time this lovely performance space has been used and the area has been really opened up, so people can dance on the street – and this is exactly what we want for this town centre.”