Welcome to Goring Gap ®
2024 was a busy year for us. We cleared the site of rubbish, debris and dense overgrowth. See the pictures section here. We turned the soil, removed hundreds of rocks and laid the site to grass. There are now two acres of lush green grass ready for the public to enjoy for their health and wellbeing. 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 childrens 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 after opposition from a few busy-body local residents. 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.
Some have you may have seen people drinking alcohol, having BBQ’s and enjoying life on the council owned land immediately opposite us, on Greensward. But don’t let the fun police know!
The first appeal (sandpit) has been now been pushed back by the Planning Inspectorate (see here). The second (alcohol licence) has been accepted by the Magistrate’s Court and our full hearing is set for March this year. 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.
Councillors have pandered to the busy-body mob and gone out of their way to stop us putting the land to good use. In March 2023 Worthing Borough Council launched the Worthing Local Plan, at a cost to the local Council Tax Payers of £424,619 (excluding council staff costs) to produce, see our freedom of information reply here. So in reality it would have cost nearly £1,000,000.00 to produce once you take into account staff costs, see here – page 8.
See page 20 – point 1.44 of the £1m local plan – it says:
‘To help meet the town’s potential it is essential that the Local Plan helps to unlock key development sites, particularly those in and around the town centre and seafront that provide the greatest potential to deliver social and economic benefits. Some of these sites have been vacant or in poor condition for a number of years and their sustainable redevelopment provides a unique opportunity to improve the town’s identity, enhance the public realm, add vibrancy and improve connectivity. The redevelopment of some of these sites also provides an opportunity to capitalise on the seafront setting and maintain and improve community facilities and the borough’s retail, tourism and leisure offer in order to better compete with other towns across the wider area. Elsewhere, a challenge will be to provide new premises to meet identified employment needs and support local business.’
We will keep you posted with developments as they happen in the news section but we can confirm the Planning Inspectorate is reviewing the refusal judgement by the Planning Inspector. The lawful development application had many parts and it was unlawful for the council and the Planning Inspector to ignore the parts that were lawful and simply focus on the parts which they believe could be unlawful.
What the planning Inspector has said is we are allowed to do whatever we want on the land for 28 days a year, per land registry title/lease. I have therefore asked our solicitors to create several leases and this will give us a full trading season from March to October.
We plan to start in March with a car boot sale and farmers market and run family activities throught year. We have other ideas, especially to try and promote Worthing for the younger generations, like Kite Surfing, but would welcome any thoughts. As long as it is community based and family orientated, we would love to hear any suggestions. If it works well we may well financially reward you for your idea.
Be well and remember our children are our future – this towns future belongs to them. Our children can’t be bored and they can’t live in tents when they are older. We need to give them a reason to stay!
