Littlehampton Seafront Scheme Revised Due To Rising Costs

The Littlehampton Seafront scheme has undergone some value engineering to offset rising costs and delays.

At a meeting of Arun District Council’s policy and finance committee on Tuesday, July 9, members were told rising construction costs had resulted in some value engineering, meaning finding lower costs for the same essential parts of the project.

The council initially reported in March preparation work would start within the month, and in full in the spring, with work on the project now expected to start sometime in the summer, finishing spring 2025. 

Rachel Alderson, the council’s principal landscaping officer, said the council’s potential contractor for the scheme, Neilcott Construction, reached out to suppliers earlier this year, telling the council in May construction costs would be ‘higher than expected’.

She said although the process was not complete, some changes included scrapping the new car park entrance, a reduction in the toilet block canopy, changing the waterplay area layout, finding a different climbing wall, changes to footpath materials, and the reconfiguration of the marketplace at Banjo Road.

She also said lighting bollards would be omitted from the scheme, but ducting would be installed in case the council wanted to install the bollards in the future.

Reasons cited for rising costs were responding to planning conditions and building control following approval of the scheme by the planning committee in December 2023, as well as in response to site surveys, safety reviews and ‘volatile’ markets affecting contractor costs.

Jackie Pendleton (Con, Middleton-on-Sea) said she was concerned about the exclusion of lighting from the scheme, saying she would like to see analysis of the scheme’s lighting when completed.

“I understand it’s perfectly feasible to use an alternative pathway route, but if somebody doesn’t know that and they try to walk down a darkened path then I would suggest there’s safety implications – not just from trips, but from meeting up with wrong characters.”

Mrs Alderson said the council was looking at where there was lighting in the scheme ‘carefully’, saying due to spill from lighting in the car park the bollards were not deemed ‘essential’ for the area.

Andy Cooper (Con, Angmering and Findon) said he was ‘disappointed’ in the use of value engineering but was still ‘supportive’ of the overall scheme, saying the council needed to be better about communicating timeframes with its residents.

He said: “The one thing I am asked in my day to day job is ‘when is this going to happen?’, so I feel the frustration of not getting that out and relaying that to the public, that are out there expecting to see spades in the ground now.”

The scheme is funded by the national government’s Levelling Up Fund for £7,234,201, later revised in March this year to £7,346,501, with £56,300 for new solar panels and changing place toilets from the council and £56,000 from the fund for ‘design guardians’.

Roger Nash (Lab, Pevensey) said nationally only 10 per cent of the Levelling Up Fund money handed out had been spent and only 10 per cent of projects completed.

He said:

“We’re in a situation where, yes there have been delays and that’s unfortunate but these things do tend to throw up problems and at least we know with this project in Littlehampton we’re going to be starting work in September, so we’re in a good position.”

“When it’s completed it’s going to make a real difference to the quality of the seafront and the quality of the visitor experience for people that come to the town.”