Our plan to improve Worthing's sea defences

Released: Friday, 28 February 2025

We plan to start work with the Environment Agency on improving Worthing's coastal defences this autumn, with a multimillion pound scheme to repair and improve our groynes.

This is about protecting homes and businesses along the seafront and in the town centre for the next 10 years. A separate scheme will be developed to manage erosion of our coast.

A team of staff from the council and the Environment Agency are currently finalising designs for the project to help protect our amazing coastline from Seaview Road to our border with Lancing at Brooklands.

First though the Environment Agency has to get a licence from the Marine Management Organisation - the government body with the role of protecting and enhancing England's coast.

The licence asks for permission to carry out the vital work, once we've decided with the Environment Agency exactly what we should do and where.

We're putting up notices along the seafront to point to how members of the community can review and comment on our licensing applications online until 26th March 2025. To have your say you can visit the:

• MMO public register (on the Marine Management Organisation website) and click on the public representation section of case reference MLA/2024/00614

If, as we hope, the application for a licence is successful, we'll then share the agreed designs for the project at on our website so everyone can see what we'll be doing:

• Local coastal protection schemes

We'll keep you updated here with how the work is progressing and our plans to create a community blueprint so we can work together to safeguard the pier, the lido and other key heritage sites along our coastline for future generations.

Photo: Groynes in need of repair looking east from Worthing Pier

Photo: Groyne in need of repair near Worthing Pier

Photo: Groynes in need of repair near Worthing Lido

(PR25-017)

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