Selsey Coastal Scheme Capital Works

Selsey is located on the southernmost tip of West Sussex on the Manhood Peninsula, within the jurisdiction of Chichester District Council (CDC). It is around 7 miles South of Chichester and borders Bracklesham Bay to the West and Pagham Harbour to the East.

The Selsey peninsula is an exposed coastline with a long history of managing coastal erosion and tidal flood risk. Selsey is an erosive peninsula and in the past, due to rapid coastal erosion, hard engineered defences were created to protect Selsey from both tidal flooding and erosion. Prior to the construction of the existing sea wall in the 1950’s, Selsey was reported as one of the fastest eroding coastlines in England.

The existing hard defences consist of reinforced concrete sea walls of various forms (particularly on the West Beach side) and timber groynes fronted by a highly mobile shingle beach (at East Beach). The hard defences are reaching, or have reached, the end of their design life. The routine repair and maintenance of coastal defences has become more frequent, as well as increasingly complex and costly, as the defences continue to age and fail.

Chichester District Council has undertaken a successful programme of beach management over the last decade, and Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Grant in Aid (GiA) funding is in place to continue these works till 2027. However, beach management alone does not address the long-term challenges faced which include:

• The increased frequency, magnitude and complexity of the works required to maintain the existing coastal defence structures, as they reach the end of the design lives.
• Predicted sea level rise due to climate change.

There are currently two Shoreline Management Plans which cover this frontage, both of which have adopted a ‘Hold the Line’ policy. This is supported by the Pagham to East Head Strategy, 2009 which has an adopted policy of Hold the Line via Sustain (maintaining the current level of protection with sea level rise). The Strategy recognised the need to manage coastal erosion and flood risk along the Selsey frontage, its aging defences and also its low priority for national funding at the time. It is the intention that the outcome of this project is to agree and implement a new, updated approach for these plans.

• Since the Strategy there have been changes in guidance, evidence to support understanding, and a change in the funding approach to for FCERM projects. A feasibility study was needed to understand the impacts of these changes, which was completed in 2023.
• The feasibility study confirmed the viability of a major capital scheme for Selsey and supported a successful Flood Defence Grant in Aid (FDGiA) funding application for the options appraisal and outline design phase of the project which commenced in November 2024.
• The primary outputs of the options appraisal and outline design stage are an Outline Business Case (OBC) and an outline design for the scheme. Subject to a successful OBC, the design will then be progressed to developed / planning design, detailed design and all the necessary licences and consents will be sought.
• Given the condition of the current assets the outline design solutions will likely include encapsulating of the existing assets with new structures and capital replacement of existing assets. The size and scale of these works will exceed £50M and be considered a major project.

The project will be delivered in accordance with the Project Lifecycle and HM Treasure gateways/funding decision points . Funding for the construction phase will be dependent on a successful Full Business Case.

This is an extensive project and will require a number of sub-projects to be commissioned (see scope below) prior to the main construction contract being put in place. Additionally, the project will require extensive market engagement prior to agreeing the scope of work and appointing a supplier to deliver the capital works along the Chichester District coastline.