Meeting on 10 September 2007

Our association was founded in 1997 primarily to support the Moss Plan (please see link) for the regeneration of the port & its surroundings The Moss plan was itself one in series of surveys & reports on the area that have been carried out since the war. When planning consultants are gathered together they must give thanks for have been blessed with our local authorities. Not only had Moss many predecessors, it has had several successors. Our meeting heard an enlightening report on the state of play in planning from Association member Janet Mockridge.

Janet is both a County Councillor & an Adur District Councillor. She told us that as central government was pressing for more homes in the area there was particular interest in Shoreham Harbour, an allegedly brown field site, as a housing location. The current plans were for 6000 new homes in Brighton & 1600 in Adur.

Janet said that the harbour would have to make big changes in its operations regardless of any possible surrender of its land for housing. The harbour was tidal & could not handle the larger vessels that were increasingly popular in the cargo world. Many of the ships using the port had been purpose built for Shoreham & were now approaching the end of their working lives. In its present format Shoreham Port had a limited future as a cargo handler. One remedy would be to build jetties out to sea & so become deep-water port, free of the inconvenience of tides.

For any of this to happen there would have to be dramatic new investment. Consultation on the possibilities were currently being held between West Sussex County Council, Brighton & Hove City Council, Shoreham Port Authority & the South East England Development Agency (Seeda.) Adur was being told what was happening but was not a major player in this game.

Janet emphasised that everything was at an early stage & that nothing had been decided. She thought that Seeda favoured bringing Newhaven into the picture. Newhaven had deep water & a rail link. Neither Shoreham nor Newhaven were making much money from cargo operations so there was an argument that we should accept that Shoreham, in time, would become primarily a recreational harbour while Newhaven would handle more cargo. One objection to a deep water Shoreham was that the necessary jetties would interrupt the coastal shingle drift. Readers of these reports will remember that shingle drift is a highly controversial subject. The situation is complicated by the fact that Shoreham is a Trust port (& so ultimately owned by the state) while Newhaven port is in private hands.

There is no suggestion on the Shoreham Port web site (see our links page) that the harbour will not progress from strength to strength. The site features new development within the current plan & the port has just recruited Peter Davies, formerly Head of Planning at Adur DC, as its Development Director.

June Lucas, our Secretary, reported more complaints about delays at the Portslade level crossing but understood that Network Rail refused to change the current drill.

There will be a Harbour Day in 2008. We plan to have a presence.