Chichester Harbour has won £250,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to plan new bird islands and saltmarsh, and to bid for a bigger grant to build them.

Chichester Harbour has been awarded £250,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to plan the recovery of its wildlife. The money pays for the planning stage. It also lets the harbour apply for a much larger grant to carry the work out.

Chichester Harbour Conservancy announced the award on its website on Monday 26 October. The Conservancy looks after the harbour, which is a National Landscape and straddles the border between West Sussex and Hampshire.

Why the harbour needs it

The Conservancy says the natural environment of the harbour “has been in severe decline for many years”. It gives three causes:

  • poor water quality
  • overdevelopment of the shoreline
  • a lack of preparedness for sea level rise

Its saltmarsh has “suffered a dramatic decline since 1946”, according to the Conservancy’s page on saltmarsh and coastal defence. Saltmarsh matters beyond wildlife: it soaks up wave energy and helps protect the shore from flooding.

What the plan includes

Dr Richard Austin, the Conservancy’s Director of Conservation, said the project aims to:

  • create new bird islands
  • create new saltmarsh
  • make better use of sediment dredged from the harbour
  • adapt and protect the harbour’s stretch of the King Charles III England Coast Path

“We are delighted to lead this inspiring project, which will deliver nature restoration at a landscape scale,” he said.

The Conservancy is now recruiting a project manager to run the programme over the coming years.

A flock of black and white oystercatchers taking off and landing on a strip of saltmarsh beside open water in Chichester Harbour.
Oystercatchers on saltmarsh in Chichester Harbour. The Conservancy says coastal birds like these use islands, spits and marshes to roost and breed. Photo: supplied by Chichester Harbour Conservancy

Where the money comes from

The grant comes from the Heritage Fund’s Landscape Connections initiative. The fund says it is investing £150 million over ten years in long-term projects that restore nature across whole landscapes and connect more people with them.

Stuart McLeod, the Heritage Fund’s Director of England, London and South, said the harbour project “demonstrates the ambition, innovation and partnership needed to secure its future”.

Councillor Iain Ballantyne, Chairman of the Conservancy, called it “a landmark moment for us”. He said the award would let the harbour “restore nature at a scale that is beyond our resources”.

What it means for you

  • Nothing changes on the water yet. This is a development grant. The building work depends on a second, larger bid, and the Conservancy has not said how much it will ask for or when.
  • The coast path is in scope. If you walk the harbour shore, the plan covers adapting the harbour’s stretch of the England Coast Path so it lasts.
  • You can follow it or take part. The Conservancy publishes news on its website and runs a volunteer programme across the harbour.
  • For high tides and flooding around the harbour, see our Bosham flood warning story.