A one-year management plan for Chichester Harbour has been adopted by the district council.
The plan will provide a light-touch review of action being taken to help look after and manage the protected landscape.
The previous plan expired in March 2024 but the government’s recent decision to replace Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty with National Landscapes meant the resulting new guidance was not in place in time to produce the required five-year plan.
As a result, the council and its partners – West Sussex County Council, Hampshire County Council and Havant Borough Council – were given permission to produce a one-year stopgap.
During a meeting of the full council, Jonathan Brown, cabinet member for environmental strategy, said concern for the future of the harbour was growing.
There have been many changes since the 2019-24 plan was prepared, including Natural England’s decision to downgrade more than 80% of the Chichester Harbour Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) to ‘unfavourable declining condition’.
As such, Mr Brown said a full overhaul of the management plan would be ‘a major piece of work’.
He added: “Work will start very shortly on the 2025-2030 document and this will be subject to public consultation.
“That document will fully reflect the strength and purpose for nature recovery that a change to a national landscape brings.
“It is expected that this will build on the work already under way on the CHaPRoN project (Chichester Harbour Protection & Recovery of Nature) and the Three Harbours Strategy.”
Changes in the one-year plan included the rewriting of the water quality policy to reflect how the issue had become a key concern over the past five years.
