Climping beach eroding: Landowners unveil plans to move car park, café and toilets

Winter and spring storms undermined sea defences and resulted in the loss of nine acres of shingle beach to the Crown Estate and three acres of car park.

The plans were announced after the landowners, the Baird family, consulted with local residents and the community on the preferred location for the new car park and improved café and toilet facilities.

Recent storms breached the coastal protections and seawater flooded the Baird’s land, which has resulted in a 25 per cent reduction in cropping capacity on affected land. As a result, the family has taken the decision to rewild the land, letting natural process return it to being salt marshes as it was back in the 17th century.

James Baird of Home Farm, Climping, said: “While we have no formal responsibility nor obligation for coastal protection, we are the stewards of the land and couldn’t sit by and do nothing. We couldn’t watch the sea take such an important community facility, and while it’s not possible to save the existing site, we are able to move it elsewhere on our land. We have a responsibility to decommission the existing buildings before they fall into and pollute the sea.

“This means the community and visitors will be able to enjoy the beach safely, without cars being parked and clogging up the narrow roads in and around the village. Storm damage along the beach, combined with Arun Council and the Environment Agency’s 2015 Coastal Defence Strategy, means a new way of thinking has been needed to ensure the environment is safe for visitors, and to plan for the future of the facilities and beach.”

Earlier this year, the Environment Agnecy said Funds to manage Climping beach are dwindling and at some point in the future the cost of maintenance will exceed the amount allowed to be spent under government rules.

In the meantime, it is being as proactive as possible with the money it has to keep the beach in as good a state of repair as possible.

An event in May gave the local community the opportunity to have their say, when the Baird family arranged for the project’s architects and planning experts to be on hand to answer questions.

With the Environment Agency’s annual maintenance budget for the Climping beach frontage exceeded in recent years, the government-funded organisation took the decision to let the area move to its natural position, meaning the area could no longer rely on expensive hard sea defences, transitioning to soft materials such as shingle bays.

James Baird added: “The beach is going through a transition and our approach is consistent with that of Arun Council and Environment Agency. The coastline is dynamic, and predicting the frequency and ferocity of future storms is enormously difficult, but over the long term these proposals should enable the area around the beach to reform to be very natural.”

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The preferred option would see the car park relocate south of the school with the added advantage of addressing existing issues faced by parents during the drop-off and pick-up of their children.

The Baird family has also offered to assist with self-protection measures by repurposing the old car parks to have a shingle bank extended for residents impacted by the storm erosion in order to try and prolong the habitable lifespan of some properties. The only cost to the householders would be to cover the collection and depositing of the shingle on the Baird’s land.

A planning application for the proposed new café and car park is expected to be submitted to Arun District Council early in 2024.