Adur District Council’s long-term ambition to regenerate Shoreham Harbour Quarter and create new high-quality residential and commercial area with riverside promenade and cycle path is moving forward at pace.
The Shoreham Harbour Joint Area Action Plan is intended to guide development in the area and has seen the council working in partnership with Brighton & Hove City Council, West Sussex County Council and Shoreham Port Authority to bring forward proposals for delivering the regeneration of the Harbour.
In December 2017 the Council’s Local Plan was adopted and this identified Shoreham Harbour as a broad location for over 1,000 new homes. In May 2018 the Action Plan was was presented to the government – and even though it has yet to be approved by Whitehall, work on transforming the area is making real progress.
The work also ties in with the activities of Shoreham Port Authority, which has recently updated its masterplan to ensure it grows by up to 25 per cent in the next 15 to 20 years.
Details are provided in the latest edition of Adur & Worthing Councils’ Building AW online magazine, which keeps residents and businesses up-to-date with ongoing developments across the area.
Rodney Lunn, chief executive at Shoreham Port, said: “The next ten years will be as busy as the last. At this stage we have an excellent track record of success and progress has been made faster than anticipated.
“We are on track to create new commercial space, invest in port facilities and infrastructure and generate jobs within a relatively short time frame. As well as contributing to wide scale regeneration, our work will develop the increased capacity required to achieve 25% growth in trade over the Masterplan period.”
The Joint Area Action Plan pledges to see Shoreham Harbour “transformed into a vibrant, thriving waterfront destination comprising a series of sustainable, mixed-use developments alongside a consolidated and enhanced Shoreham Port which will continue to play a vital role in the local economy”.
It adds that “the redevelopment of key areas of the harbour will provide benefits for the local community, natural environment, and economy through increased investment, improved leisure opportunities, enhanced public realm and the delivery of critical infrastructure that will help respond positively to climate change”.
Shoreham Port Authority is consolidating operations and improving facilities in the eastern end of the harbour. This creates an opportunity to redevelop vacant and underused sites to provide new workplaces and homes.
The largest area of development is at the Western Harbour Arm, between Shoreham town centre and Kingston Beach There are also development sites at Southwick, and across the Brighton & Hove boundary at South Portslade and Aldrington Basin.
As well as the new development, proposals include new flood defences along the river and coast; new and improved routes for cyclists and pedestrians; renewable energy generation to provide low carbon and affordable energy and heat; new green spaces and wildlife corridors; and transport improvements to roads and junctions.
All the details are provided within Building AW, which is a bright, informal 26-page online publication.
Features in the July edition include details on a planned new health hub in the heart of Worthing thanks to Worthing Borough Council working with local NHS providers; the start of work on a new £10 million office development in Ham Road, Shoreham, which will secure more than 200 local jobs; and details on the signing of a Gigabit ultrafast internet provision which is coming to the area soon.
The online publication also includes regular updates on some of the major projects across Adur and Worthing which are moving forward at speed.
In their introductions to the edition, leaders said there are great strides being made in terms of redevelopment and growth.
Councillor Brian Boggis, Adur District Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration, said: “Contrary to popular belief, the regeneration of places takes time. But after 20 years of talking about the renaissance of Shoreham Harbour, I’m delighted to say that the pieces are falling into place.
“Developments are coming forward, the Tidal Walls flood defence scheme is nearing completion, the port itself is investing in new commercial space – all of this feeds into our wider Joint Area Action Plan vision which is set to be finalised in the next few months.”
Councillor Kevin Jenkins, Worthing Borough Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration, said: ”It’s an obvious truth that if you want to rebuild you have to pull down before you can put up. That is what we are doing in Worthing. You can all see now that the old Teville Gate multi-storey car, the part of the site owned by us, has now been demolished.
“As with Teville so with other sites across the borough. Gradually we are bringing forward plans to improve our town, replacing old, worn-out sites with schemes for jobs, homes, leisure and retail, helping to secure our future.”
