Coastal protection and management
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Coastal Protection Authority
Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council are the Coastal Protection Authority under the Coast Protection Act 1949, and the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 for Worthing's coastline.
We have the responsibility for controlling coastal erosion risk and encroachment from the sea. The legislation does not make it a statutory requirement to defend the coast, but most coastal authorities choose to be active in coastal protection in the interests of public safety.
The Environment Agency has a strategic overview to ensure that decisions about the coast are made in a joined-up manner.
South East Coastal Group
Both Councils are members of the South East Coastal Group. The group covers from Selsey Bill to the Thames Estuary and represents coastal management authorities in the region including district councils, borough councils, unitary councils, county councils, the Environment Agency and Natural England. See:
Coastal defences
The primary coastal defence along Adur and Worthing's coastline is the shingle beach.
To help, if you notice damage to a coastal structure, you can report it to:
See:
Adur's coastal defences
In Adur, the coastline is split between Adur District Council, Shoreham Port Authority and the Environment Agency.
Lancing Beach and Shoreham Beach
- Lancing Beach and Shoreham Beach (6km) is managed by the Environment Agency.
The Environment Agency manages the Shoreham Beach frontage from Western Road in the west to the harbour arm and comprises 33 rock groynes and provides a standard flood defence of a 1-in-a-100-year storm event. The Environment Agency continues to monitor shingle levels and recharge from the harbour arm following shingle loss in storms.
You can click on the map below for a larger zoomable map:
Photo: Lancing Beach - looking east (from The Perch on Lancing Beach Green)
Photo: Lancing Beach - looking west (from The Perch on Lancing Beach Green)
Photo: Shoreham Beach - looking east
Photo: Shoreham Beach - looking west
Kingston Beach and Southwick Beach
- Kingston Beach in Shoreham (0.4km) is managed by Adur District Council and Shoreham Port Authority.
- Southwick Beach (2.1km) & the Port is managed by Shoreham Port Authority.
Kingston Beach in Shoreham is managed by Adur District Council and Shoreham Port Authority.
Kingston Beach, which is located at the entrance to Shoreham Port, is a shingle beach with timber groynes, breastworks and concrete revetments.
Southwick Beach, which is located from the eastern harbour arm to the Brighton & Hove boundary, is a shingle beach that hosts precast concrete revetments, rock revetments, a steel sheet pile seawall, concrete splash walls and rock and timber groynes.
As the harbour arms stop the natural longshore drift of the shingle along the coastline, the Shoreham Port Authority carry out bypassing works (moving the shingle from Shoreham Beach to Southwick Beach) to ensure the coastal line to the east of the harbour arms receive shingle to replenish the beaches.
You can click on the map below for a larger zoomable map:
Photo: Kingston Beach - looking east towards Shoreham power station and the lock gates
Photo: Kingston Beach - looking west towards the lighthouse and RNLI station
Photo: Southwick Beach - looking east from Carats Café
Photo: Southwick Beach - looking west from Carats Café towards Shoreham Harbour entrance
Worthing's coastal defences
Worthing Beach
- Worthing Beach (7.8km) is managed by Worthing Borough Council.
Worthing's coastline includes 144 timber and 11 rock groynes, three rock revetments and a number of splash wall structures. The defences are all managed by our Engineering team through regular inspections and repaired/replaced on a priority basis.
You can click on the map below for a larger zoomable map:
Photo: Worthing Beach - looking west towards pier
Photo: Worthing Beach - looking west (from near the end of George V Ave)
Photo: Worthing Beach - looking east from Goring Greensward
Photo: Worthing Beach - looking east from near Sea Lane Café, Goring
Coastal monitoring
Monitoring is carried out by our Engineering Services team locally and on a regional level by Channel Coast Observatory as part of the national network of regional monitoring programmes. We host the Southeast Coastal Regional Monitoring Survey Team, which surveys the coastline from Selsey Bill to Beachy Head. See:
The survey team utilises modern surveying equipment to scan the region's shingle beaches and cliffs from quad bikes and drones. The regional programme provides a consistent approach to coastal process monitoring. It also gives information for the operational management of coastal protection and flood defence, as well as providing data for the development of strategic shoreline management plans and coastal defence strategies.
Photo: The survey team ATV quad bike at Newhaven
Photo: The survey team quad bikes and UAVs (drones) at Seven Sisters, near Beachy Head
Coast protection plans and strategies
There are a number of documents which detail how the coastal lines are protected from coastal erosion and flooding.
The Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) is a high level plan which states the flooding and erosion management policy for that section of coastline until 2105. These policies are either :
- Hold the line
- Managed realignment, or
- No active intervention
Both Adur and Worthing are included within the Beachy Head to Selsey SMP (12, subsection 3) - Brighton Marina to Littlehampton, which is split into a number of units:
- Adur: 4D15, 4D14 and 4D13
- Worthing: 4D17, 4D16 and 4D15
All of Adur and Worthing's frontages are to 'hold the line'.
The Environment Agency has recently produced a Shoreline Management Plan Explorer web-based platform to view the Shoreline Management Plans and units. See:
The Environment Agency National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping is an Interactive Map which shows the estimated land at risk from coastal erosion for three time periods (short, medium and long-term) and estimates how statistically likely it is the coast will retreat and by how many metres. In Worthing, the SMP policy is to 'hold the line' and the mapping shows no retreat of the coastline with interventions in line with the SMP. A revised mapping tool is coming in December 2024 and forms part of the SMP Explorer.
Coastal protection funding
Both Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council undertake maintenance work throughout the year to repair and maintain the coastal defences from revenue funding. These are mainly small scale works ranging from replacing missing timber planks to minor timber groyne rebuilds.
The government provides funding for major flood and coastal erosion risk management projects through its Flood and Coastal Resilience Partnership Funding or 'Grant-in-Aid'. The partnership funding does not usually cover the full cost of the works and any shortfall requires contributions from third parties. If or when any partnership funding might be required, those likely to be at risk from flooding or erosion and therefore directly benefiting from the defences may be contacted for contribution.
Local coastal protection schemes
Brighton Marina to River Adur Coastal Scheme
Adur District Council is working in partnership with the Shoreham Port Authority and Brighton & Hove City Council to deliver the Brighton Marina to River Adur Coastal Scheme. Works have been completed in a number of areas to date, with improvement works along Southwick Beach that are programmed for 2030.
Worthing Capital Maintenance Coastal Defence Project
Worthing Borough Council is currently working in partnership with the Environment Agency on a Capital Maintenance Coastal Defence Project which aims to extend the life of the aged timber groynes by up to ten years to allow time to develop a long-term project for the whole frontage.
The Capital Maintenance Project includes work on a number of groynes between Sea View Road in the west to Brooklands in the east and will be carried out in two phases;
- Phase one, forecast for Autumn 2025, will consist of structural repairs to the timber groynes (pile extensions and replacements, wailing and land tie replacements, planking replacement) and rock groyne root replacements (under shingle to stop outflanking).
- Phase two, forecast for Autumn 2026 and 2027, will monitor the phase one works and natural shingle replenishment over a year and then consider if further shingle replenishment is required.
August 2024 update:
The scheme has progressed to the final stages of the design, which will then be submitted to the Environment Agency for approval in January 2025.
As part of the design process, consideration must be given to the scheme's impact on the Environment. As this scheme is considered unlikely to have significant effects on the environment, the Environment Agency's intention is not to prepare an Environmental Statement in respect to them.
The justification for this decision is outlined in this published notice:
Anyone wishing to make representations in relation to the likely environmental effects of the proposed improvement works can do so in writing, to the address specified below, within 30 days of the date of publication of this notice (Saturday 14th September 2024).
- Kenny Yong (Project Manager)
kenny.yong@jbaconsulting.com
35 Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 3BW
01903 221373
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Page last updated: 10 September 2024