A council has revealed plans to use a derelict site while plans for hundreds of homes are drawn up.

In March, Worthing Borough Council agreed a deal worth £5.1m with Homes England to build around 250 homes on the land at Teville Gate.

Teville Gate, which once was the site of a shopping centre, was bought by the council for £7 million in 2021.

At the time of the announcement, the local authority asked for ideas from the community on how best to use the site while plans are made for the homes.

The council has now announced it will be used temporarily at a car park.

Hundreds of homes will eventually be built on the siteHundreds of homes will eventually be built on the site (Image: Worthing Borough Council)

A commercial and community space, which will be available to hire, is also being prepared at the site.

The development of the temporary parking area will be funded by Hemiko which is leading the council’s scheme to deliver a low-carbon heat network for Worthing.

Heat networks are an alternative to gas boilers - they provide low-carbon heating and hot water by collecting local unused heat.

Earlier this summer the council agreed a deal with Hemiko for it to occupy half of the vacant Teville Gate site during the heat network’s construction. As part of this, Hemiko is helping the council prepare the other half of the site for temporary use.

It is hoped the temporary car park will be available for use from this autumn.

"We have decided to transform the space into a temporary car park to meet the short-term need for more parking in the town,”

“This is due to a number of active projects, including upcoming improvement work on some of our multi-storey car parks that will affect the number of parking spaces in the town.

“We’ll provide more information on the new car park as it nears completion.”

The council wants the site to be used both for new homes that will be available for Worthing residents to buy and for social housing to help those on the town’s register who need somewhere to live.