The West Beach campaign’s application for village green status has gone in and we now have to wait for NPP (Newhaven Port and Properties) to put their argument against the re-opening to ESCC.

Once ESCC receive all the relevant information they will make their decision on whether enough evidence exists to declare the beach a green. We believe that enough has been done to secure this and, if granted NPP will be obliged to keep the beach open unless an emergency forces its closure. Effectively they will be legally responsible for its repairs. Newhaven Town Council received hundreds of family photos dating back at least a century providing evidence of days out, picnics,
swimming etc which supports the application criteria of family
activities of at least 20 years minimum.

In addition, we held our ITV Fixers beach event at Newhaven Fort in January - numbers exceeded 400 (we catered for 60-100) and a huge amount of awareness was raised for our campaign. We would not have been able to do this without the support of the entire local media including ITV Meridian, BBC South Today and local radio stations.

Chris Hamilton
(Project Co-ordinator)