West Street is dug up from 5 October and South Street to 22 December, after a second redraw. Every street and date, and the £10.5m scheme behind the work.
Chichester’s four main shopping streets are being dug up in turn between now and just before Christmas.
Work began in Tower Street and East Street on Monday 21 September and reached North Street on Monday 28 September. It reaches West Street on Monday 5 October and South Street on Thursday 19 November. The last phase is due to finish on Tuesday 22 December.
Updated 30 September: West Sussex County Council has redrawn the programme again. West Street now starts two weeks earlier, South Street finishes nine days later, and two short phases have been added in Little London and Chapel Street. Details at the foot of this page.
The job is not resurfacing and it is not a gas main. West Sussex County Council and Chichester District Council are laying the ducts, cables and columns that mobile network operators would need in order to improve the signal in the city centre. The project is called Chichester OpenDigital.
The phases, street by street
This timetable is published on the county council’s Chichester OpenDigital project page and nowhere else. It is the only place the street-by-street dates appear.
| Street | Activity | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Tower Street | Street work | 21 September to 10 October |
| East Street | Street work | 21 September to 11 October |
| North Street | Street work | 28 September to 25 October |
| West Street, west end | Street work | 5 October to 1 November |
| West Street, east end | Street work | 19 to 22 November |
| South Street | Street work | 19 November to 22 December |
| East Street and Little London | Street work | 2 to 4 December |
| Chapel Street | Street work | 7 to 8 December |
Ground-penetrating radar surveys across the streets ran from 14 to 20 September and are finished. The street phases overlap, so this is not one street at a time. From Monday 5 October there is work in four streets at once: Tower Street, East Street, North Street and the west end of West Street.
What is actually going in the ground
The county council’s project page sets out the physical work:
- underground fibre connections, carried in ducts and chambers, which is most of the network
- five heritage-style street columns
- three hub cabinets, on county council land near Tower Street, close to the BT Exchange
The columns are the part residents will see. The council says the design is meant to fit Chichester’s historic streets and that equipment will be sited “away from high-footfall areas to minimise visual impact”. It also says the columns are built to be shared by every network operator, which it argues avoids a second round of columns later.
The catch: this does not improve anyone’s signal yet
Read the wording carefully and the councils are careful about what they are promising. The county council’s announcement, issued on 16 September, calls the project “the first step in enabling mobile operators to set up the services needed to improve coverage in the city centre”. Its project page says operators “will be able to use this infrastructure”.
That is the honest position, and it is worth holding onto. The councils are building the host infrastructure. No mobile operator has been named, and no date has been published for any operator switching equipment on. The signal in North Street does not change on the day the column goes up.
Councillor Yvonne Gravely, the county council’s cabinet member for economy and skills, put the problem plainly in the announcement: “Let’s be honest, poor mobile signal in Chichester city centre is something many people experience, and we know how frustrating that can be.”
Why it is being done now, ahead of a £10.5m rebuild
The digging is timed to get underneath the city centre before the paving is replaced.
North Street and East Street are due to be rebuilt under the Chichester Public Realm Improvement Scheme. The county council’s scheme FAQs put the cost at £10.5 million, with West Sussex County Council contributing more than £7 million. The rest comes from the Community Infrastructure Levy, the Lane Rental Surplus Fund, Chichester City Council, Chichester District Council and “income from the sale of reclaimed stone”.
What that scheme will do, in the council’s own description:
- resurface the main pedestrian areas in York stone, with a central bound strip for delivery vehicles
- extend the pedestrian zone to St Peters in the north, and to Little London and Baffins Lane in the east
- add trees, planting, seating and litter bins
- install fibre ducting and improve wayfinding signs
Doing the ducts first is the sensible order, and the council says so: the announcement states that completing underground works first avoids “repeated excavation” and protects newly improved streets.
One thing the two council sources do not agree on is when that rebuild happens. The 16 September announcement says the underground works are being completed “in advance of public realm upgrades planned for later in the year”. The scheme’s own FAQ page says the project is still in detailed design, that a delivery partner will be sought over spring and summer 2026, and that construction is expected to start in February 2027. We have gone with the FAQ date, because it is the more specific of the two and it sits on the scheme’s own consultation page.
What it means for you
- If you drive in, nothing on this list closes a road outright. These are street works in a largely pedestrianised centre, not the kind of closure the A27 has been running. Our roadworks and travel page carries the closures that do shut roads, including Stockbridge Road from 10 October.
- If you are a city centre trader, the dates that matter are 19 November to 22 December in South Street, 2 to 4 December in East Street and Little London, and 7 to 8 December in Chapel Street. Those windows cover the Christmas trading period, right up to 22 December. The county council has published no detail on how deliveries or market trading will be handled, and we could not find any.
- If you park in the centre, the works are on five streets that are mostly pedestrian anyway; the car parks are unaffected. Tariffs and the 1 October permit increase are on our parking page.
- If you want to know when your section is being dug, there is no published answer. The county council says it will “continue to publish updates on this page throughout the project”, and that page is the place to check. It has now changed the dates twice without saying so.
- Do not expect a better signal in 2026. The infrastructure is the council’s job; turning it into coverage is the operators’, and none has committed to a date.
Sources
- Chichester OpenDigital project, West Sussex County Council, for the phase programme, the five columns, the three hub cabinets and the start date
- Chichester set for major mobile boost as OpenDigital project launches, West Sussex County Council, released 16 September 2026
- OpenDigital project in Chichester, West Sussex County Council
- Chichester Public Realm Improvement Scheme FAQs, for the £10.5 million cost, the funding split and the February 2027 construction date
- Chichester Growth Deal, the programme both schemes sit under
Update, 27 September 2026: West Sussex County Council has changed two phases on its project page since we published. East Street is now given as 21 September to 11 October (previously 28 September to 18 October) and North Street as 28 September to 25 October (previously 5 October to 1 November). The page gives no date or reason for the change. We have updated the dates, the table and the chart above; the West Street and South Street phases are unchanged.
Update, 30 September 2026: The county council has redrawn the programme a second time, again with no date or note on the page. What changed against the 27 September version:
- West Street, west end: now 5 October to 1 November (was 19 October to 15 November).
- West Street, east end: now 19 to 22 November (was 2 to 29 November).
- South Street: now 19 November to 22 December (was 16 November to 13 December).
- East Street and Little London: a new phase, 2 to 4 December.
- Chapel Street: a new phase, 7 to 8 December.
The radar survey line has also been dropped from the page, as that phase is finished. We have updated the dates, the table and the chart above.
More Chichester information: roadworks and travel, parking, planning news and bin collection days.
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