The statement of affairs for Billy's on the Beach Limited shows a £450,270 deficiency and £151,644 of PAYE owed to HMRC. The Bracklesham venue is still trading.
The company behind the beach restaurant at Bracklesham Bay went into liquidation owing £151,644 of PAYE to HM Revenue and Customs and a further £157,649 to an associated company that was already in liquidation itself, according to the statement of affairs for Billy’s on the Beach Limited filed at Companies House.
The document puts the total deficiency at £450,270. Against that, the directors valued everything the company owned at £8,600.
We reported the wind-up on 12 August and said we would report the figures. The venue at Bracklesham, now trading as The Beach, is open, and was advertising a Sunday roast on 6 September.
The assets: £8,600
The statement is dated 21 July 2026 and signed by director Jamie Hawkins. Two assets are listed, both subject to a floating charge:
- Furniture and equipment, book value £28,611, valued by Middleton Barton Valuation at £1,600 ex-situ, meaning stripped out of the building.
- Goodwill, including the trading style, valued by the same firm at £7,000.
The notes record that the prescribed part, the slice of a floating charge recovery that is normally ring-fenced for unsecured creditors, has been dis-applied because the net property is less than £10,000, under section 176A(3) of the Insolvency Act 1986. National Westminster Bank holds the floating charge. There are no employee claims and no consumer creditors.
Where the money is owed
| Claim | Rank | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Inter-company loan | Unsecured | £157,649.00 |
| HMRC, PAYE | Secondary preferential | £151,644.00 |
| Trade and expense creditors | Unsecured | £84,850.00 |
| Banks and institutions | Unsecured | £57,000.00 |
| Directors | Unsecured | £6,784.00 |
| HMRC VAT, Customs and Excise, floating charge | Various | £3.00 |
The bank and institution figure is loans from Lightspeed, £40,000, and Capital on Tap, £17,000, both named in the creditor schedule. The £6,784 owed to directors is described in the notes as funds they put into the company.
The biggest creditor is a company already in liquidation
The £157,649 inter-company loan is owed to Beach Cafe Services Trading Limited, company number 13144925, registered at the same Worthing address as Billy’s on the Beach Limited was until August.
That company is itself in liquidation. Its Companies House record shows a resolution to wind up passed on 21 May 2026, with the appointment of a liquidator and its own statement of affairs filed on 3 June. It went into liquidation two months before the Bracklesham company did.
The notes to the Bracklesham filing say only that “there is a loan outstanding to an associated company”. Whether one liquidation recovers anything from the other is a matter for the two sets of office holders.
A schedule that does not add up
The creditor schedule attached to the statement names 20 creditors totalling £400,930. The summary of liabilities in the same document adds up to £457,930 of claims. The £57,000 difference is exactly the figure the summary gives for bank and institutional lending, which is also itemised in the named schedule as the Lightspeed and Capital on Tap loans.
The document itself carries the standard warning: creditors’ claims are subject to agreement by the liquidator and are not prejudiced by omissions from the statement of affairs, or by being included at a different amount from the one claimed.
Who is owed locally
The named schedule includes suppliers across Sussex and beyond:
- Bidfood Group, Slough, £7,000
- Parkers Food Service, Rudford Industrial Estate, Ford, near Arundel, £6,328
- Something Fishy Sussex Ltd, The Parade, East Wittering, £5,347
- R D Johns Ltd, Kingsteignton, Devon, £4,202
- Hennings Wine, Station Approach, Pulborough, £3,428
- Box Broadband, Cranleigh, £875
- Bar Supplies Sussex Ltd, Ford, near Arundel, £420
- Solent Facilities, Ringwood, £246
Chichester District Council is listed as a creditor, at a nominal £1, as are NatWest, the company’s accountants, the pension provider Now: Pensions and a funding company. A £1 entry in a statement of affairs usually marks a creditor whose claim has not been quantified rather than a debt of one pound.
Something Fishy at East Wittering and the two Ford suppliers are the closest to home. East Wittering is about two miles along the coast from Bracklesham.
What it means for you
If you are heading to the beach: the venue is trading. The Beach Company’s website listed a Sunday roast at Bracklesham on 6 September and lists the watersports centre as operating. The liquidation is of a company, not of the site. Bracklesham and the Witterings are in our guide to things to do in Chichester.
If the company owes you money: the liquidator is Andrew Ryder of JT Maxwell Limited, listed in The Gazette notice on 02892 448110 and corporate@jtmaxwell.co.uk. Submit a claim even if your name is on the schedule at £1, and especially if it is not on the schedule at all.
If you are a supplier to a seasonal seafront business: the ranking here is the thing to understand. HMRC’s PAYE claim of £151,644 is paid ahead of every trade creditor, out of assets the directors valued at £8,600. On those numbers there is nothing left for the £84,850 of trade and expense claims.
Every figure above is taken from the filed record. The next document to watch is the liquidator’s progress report, due within a year of the 30 July appointment. It will say what the £8,600 of assets actually raised.
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