Shoreham Growth Points
16 July 2008SEEDA (The South East England Development Agency), Shoreham Port Authority, and the local authorities of Adur District Council, Brighton & Hove City Council and West Sussex County Council, welcome the Government announcement today that Shoreham Harbour is to achieve Growth Point status.
This announcement by CLG recognises the contribution that Shoreham Harbour can potentially make to the economic development prospects of the local area, whilst focussing on regeneration measures that will benefit existing communities and reverse deprivation. The scheme will involve significant upgrades to public transport, and measures to improve long-term flood protection for the wider area. It will also enable a range of new community infrastructure such as schools and doctors’ surgeries to be provided, along with public open space and improved beach access.
Peter Latham, Adur District Council Director of Services commented: "The aim is to create a significant urban extension that will be an international exemplar in sustainable development, and Central Government funding made available through Growth Points status will help to enable this vision to be achieved. This project will provide important benefits both for current and new residents of the area, and it will be crucial that existing communities are well integrated with new development, and that they are able to play an active part in this process."
James Brathwaite, CBE, SEEDA Chairman added: "This is a major opportunity to create new homes and jobs and to link these south coast communities of Shoreham and Brighton & Hove with new, sustainable transport systems. SEEDA is delighted that the good groundwork done with local partners has achieved Government backing and financial support for this new Growth Point."
Proposals for the Shoreham Harbour area represent a large-scale, mixed-use redevelopment scheme on the south coast of England, providing significant economic growth alongside a range of new homes and jobs as part of a sustainable vision for the area. Plans for regenerating the harbour have existed for nearly a decade, but the scheme that is now being envisioned is a step change in the thinking - promoting a high quality mixed-use sustainable neighbourhood taking in parts of Shoreham, Southwick and Portslade around a consolidated and modernised Port.
Proposals will be subject to detailed testing and community consultation through an emerging Area Action Plan process to be developed jointly by the three local authorities. However early analysis suggests that the project has the capacity to deliver a number of key outputs and outcomes to the local area.
These may include: up to 10,000 new homes (4,000 more than had previously been suggested for planning purposes) with a wide mixture of tenures and housing types; 7,750 new jobs, many of these in high value sectors; new retail and leisure facilities; a high quality network of public open space including a significantly improved public beach; new community facilities including health, education and skills training; regeneration for the existing adjacent communities; renewable energy and zero carbon development; and a package of high quality public transport improvements including an extension to the proposed Rapid Transit System (RTS) link with Brighton & Hove and the Sussex Coast, and upgrades to the existing railway stations and rail services.
Delivery of new homes, employment and community facilities could begin to come forward within the next three years in parts of the area where there are no major physical constraints. A long term regeneration programme is envisioned over the next 15-20 years, which would require a number of key infrastructure issues, including highways and flood risk management, to be resolved with the appropriate agencies.
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