Work will start on a new public slipway at East Beach, Selsey, on Monday (12 September) to improve access to the sea.
Local people, businesses and beach users, including divers, worked with local councillors and members of the Manhood Peninsula Steering Group from the Coastal Trust Project, to help to shape the slipway design and consultation process.
Construction is scheduled to last nine weeks. Chichester District Council will oversee the work.
The slipway will replace a number of old slipways and access ramps which have become buried under shingle or have been washed away by storms.
Councillor John Connor, Cabinet Member for the Environment and Community Safety, says: “At one time there were some ten different slipways and access ramps around Selsey’s coastline from which local people could launch small craft. Most of these were built 50 years ago, but the changing coastline means that today they are either buried under 20ft of shingle, too dangerous to use because the landward access has changed or have been washed away completely by storms.”
The work is funded by a grant from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Coastal Change Fund. A total of £450,000 was awarded to the council to work with coastal communities on the Manhood Peninsula. Part of the money was set aside for reinstating access to the beach at Selsey.
Selsey Coastal Trust, a community-owned coastal trust set up to revitalise Selsey and raise funds for maintaining sea defences, welcomed the new slipway. Roland O’Brien, Chair of the Selsey Coastal Trust Steering Group, says: “The Trust is delighted that its first tangible project, a boat ramp to improve public access to the sea, is fully funded and will shortly be built. It has taken a lot of work, but is a great achievement and we would like to thank all those involved in getting the project to this stage.”
Owners of small craft and dinghies in the immediate area have been asked to move their craft while the work is being carried out.
