Shoreham is on the move again

It had a harbour whereas in Brighton they had to pull boats up the beach. It had an impressive church whose ruins still show a building far bigger than today’s St Mary de Haura.

But while Brighton grew into one of Britain’s leading resorts, Shoreham became a quiet seaside town, a pleasant backwater rather than a place of progress.

There are signs that Shoreham is on the move again. The development of the derelict Ropetackle site after decades of neglect has created an impressive new set of houses and a riverside walk.

In the Ropetackle, Shoreham now has a venue for comedy, films, entertainment and theatre which it was sorely lacking before.

There is more to come. The northern part of Ropetackle is soon going to make a substantial addition to the scheme.

The grotty little footbridge across the river has now been replaced by the impressive Adur Ferry Bridge providing a pleasing link from the old town to Shoreham Beach.

There are signs that more development will occur on the old postal site south of the A259 sooner rather than later.

Shoreham Harbour is booming as never before. It has overcome the enormous blows sustained when the two old electricity power stations and the gasworks closed.

There was talk a few years ago of reviving the port by building up to 10,000 homes there but it is hard to see now where anything like that could possibly go as vacant space is filled by industry.

Now there is news of a £60 million proposed redevelopment of the Adur Civic Centre to include housing, a hotel, a digital skills hub and a new home for a telecoms firm.

This will bring new life to a building which lost its original use as Adur, one of Britain’s smallest district councils, started to share services with neighbouring Worthing.

There are still plenty of problems for Shoreham. The A259 is congested all day long in the High Street which is economically depressing and environmentally unsound.

No progress has been made on solving this problem since the deserved defeat of the Saltings Bridge proposal 40 years ago.

Parking is a constant problem in Shoreham and I am afraid it is inevitable that a much larger and better organised scheme will have to be introduced soon in the town centre.

Shoreham Airport, the oldest in England, is hampered by poor access from the north and such a low railway bridge to the south that only one car can use it at a time. The airport itself is too small to take regular jet services.

Flooding is a constant threat to Shoreham. Water has risen uncomfortably high on several recent occasions. It may be necessary to raise the height of Riverbank, the pathway servicing houseboats south of the river, to prevent inundation of nearby housing but this would be ugly, disruptive and expensive.

Although the monthly farmers’ markets (there is one this Saturday) in pedestrianised East Street have been a huge success, Shoreham is a disappointing shopping centre badly in need of new life.

It has done well to survive against the vast Holmbush Centre but now needs to offer more goods of a kind not found in large shopping arcades. More shops need to emulate the welcome individuality of most of the coffee bars and restaurants.

There is talk too of improving the community centre at Pond Road, a sad remnant of inappropriate redevelopment in the 1960s. This too is much needed.

Shoreham is well served by rail but the station is dismal and needs modernising.

In the long term it would be good to revive the old line to Horsham, now largely occupied by the Downs Link cycle route but this may prove to be only a pipe dream.

As Shoreham grows over the next few years, care must be taken to preserve its historic streets and handsome houses. It has a charm that could easily be lost.

And Shoreham needs to get the people behind any worthwhile improvement as happened with the Ropetackle when it ran into difficulties.

Shoreham will never again be a rival to booming Brighton but its revival is engendering a pride that has been lacking for a long time.