Residents confused over Bracklesham Bay reportedly 'closing'

Reports from residents of Bracklesham have revealed that Foreshore is set to close and change focus. Residents have been voicing their concerns over the service not being available to them, especially during the peak summer season.

Karen Wright wrote a post on to alert members of the community about what was going on. She wrote: “Just found out that Foreshore in Bracklesham is closed never to reopen. those guys have dealt with so many issues over the summers of the last 40 years.”

“This includes weaver fish and jelly fish stings rescues and other incidents. One more thing that will be missed is the moving the shingle and stones with the tractor making it possible for the elderly or disabled people and others to safely get down on to the beach.”

When speaking with us about the matter, she said: “What I can see from the reaction of both the post on Facebook groups and pages is that people are not happy. They were a really important part of the beach.

“They had two boats they’d use for assisting in emergency incidents and also had a tractor to move the stones. This made it easier for people to walk down to the beach. They have also removed dangerous things from the beach which could float back out to sea again which would be a danger for kite surfers for example."

Chichester District Council have confirmed that there will be ‘changes’ to the service. Cllr Jonathan Brown, Cabinet Member for Environmental Strategy at Chichester District Council said: “The service is currently based in just one location.

"Many of the services it provides are also delivered by other organisations or locations, and we are finding it more and more difficult to recruit on a casual basis over the summer, so it makes sense to make these changes now.

“Our priority is to carry out inspections along the nine miles of foreshore that the council is responsible for, while continuing to respond to any issues and concerns that people have. New equipment will enable the service to access and reach more areas of the foreshore, which will help them target enforcement and problem areas.

"The service will also be able to better communicate with people about sea safety matters by having a presence across a much wider area and visiting schools and community groups.”

“It is important to stress that the Foreshores Service is not, and has never been, a designated rescue service. We want to assure residents and visitors we get that this will continue to be delivered by HM Coastguard and the RNLI Search and Rescue Service.”

Inspections carried out by the service aim to identify potential hazards on the foreshore. In the past, this had sometimes involved the use of boat patrols.