Welcome to Goring Gap ® – if you have been following our story you will see that the front page of our website has changed. If you want to see the old front page please click here.

2024 has been a busy year for us. We have cleared the site of rubbish, debris and dense overgrowth. We have turned the soil, removed hundreds of rocks and laid the site to grass. Soon there will be two acres of lush green grass for the public to enjoy for their health and wellbeing while we finalise our plans for development. We have made the site safe and reestablished the existing entrance onto Marine Drive and fenced it all around. Soon our new flowerpot boat will be installed on the corner of Amberley and Marine Drive, decorated by the amazing children of Courtlands School and the perimeter fence electrified (at night) and 24/7 CCTV installed.

As many of you will know we put in an application with the Local Planning Authority for a shaded sandpit for children to play in surrounded by concessions selling tea, coffee and cold drinks (including alcohol). Both applications were refused by Worthing Borough Council. The first (sandpit) on the grounds (amongst other things) a children’s sandpit constitutes ‘operational development’ and the second, (the alcohol licence), because chaos and mayhem would descend Goring Gap. The fact the police withdrew any objection and the licencing authority were happy with our application appears irrelevant in the eyes of some people at Worthing Borough Council.

The first appeal (sandpit) has been refused by the Planning Inspectorate (see here). The second (alcohol licence) has been accepted by the Magistrate’s Court and our full hearing is in March 2025. Due to the bias we experienced from Worthing Councillors and in order to try and get a fair hearing, the Magistrates Court has agreed to hear our case in Horsham.  

We will keep you posted with developments as they happen in the NEWS section above.

Be well and remember our children are our future – this town belongs to them. They can’t be bored and they can’t live in tents when they are older. We need to give them a reason to stay!