Adur District Council to host engagement event ahead of potential beach sale
Released: Wednesday, 09 July 2025
We're hosting an engagement event so the community can find out more about the potential sale of our part of Southwick Beach and ask any questions they have.
At last night's meeting of Adur & Worthing Councils' Joint Strategic Committee, Councillor Jeremy Gardner, the leader of Adur District Council, announced that a public event would be held about the potential transfer to Shoreham Port Authority.
The committee decided that although it supported the transfer of the land in principle, residents should have the opportunity to have their say before a decision is made.
We are deciding on a suitable venue for the public event, which is due to take place in the coming weeks. Cllr Gardner will lead the event, which will be attended by our officers and representatives of Shoreham Port Authority.
As it already owns most of the surrounding land, Shoreham Port Authority has approached us about the possibility of purchasing the site, which would include the promenade, public toilets, beach chalets, the Café and car park.
We are open to selling our part of the beach, as well as the surrounding facilities, as we lack the funding to adequately invest into the current infrastructure to ensure the future protection of the shoreline.
Cllr Gardner said:
“We have arranged this meeting as it's important that residents have a chance to ask questions and understand what is being proposed. As a council for the community, we want to make sure Adur's public assets are looked after in the best possible way, and we believe that this proposal for Southwick Beach can achieve that.”
Since the possible transfer was first suggested, Shoreham Port Authority has announced its commitment to retain public rights of access to the beach forever, should the sale be agreed.
We have also highlighted the importance of the beach remaining publicly accessible to the port authority, which already owns and manages the majority of the public coastline leading to the Brighton and Hove border from Southwick Beach.
We believe Shoreham Port would be an ideal custodian of the land because of its key contribution to the local economy, its work with the community, its sustainable values and the fact it is the adjacent landowner.
However, we want to ensure that residents' questions or concerns are addressed before any transfer progresses.
Should a deal be agreed, the public facilities at Southwick Beach would be managed by Shoreham Port Authority. Existing contractual agreements with beach chalet tenants and the operator of Carats Café would be automatically assigned to the port authority.
Photos: Southwick Beach
(PR25-046)
Page last updated: 10 July 2025