Arun could pay out £18m to Littlehampton Harbour following high court decision

A claim over the council’s refusal to pay additional infrastructure costs was brought to the court by the Littlehampton Harbour Board against Arun District Council on March 5 last year.

This followed a request in December 2023 from the board to the council to help pay for ‘investigative and design infrastructure works’, according to the high court decision delivered by Judge Melanie Plimmer remotely on December 18, 2024.

It says the sum requested was for ‘future project needs’ or the Harbour Entrance Renewal Scheme (HERS) – which seeks to update the harbour entrance’s 1920s infrastructure.

West Sussex County Council, listed as an interested party in the case, approved to pay their half of the infrastructure costs after request from the board in February.

Judge Plimmer said in her decision the district council’s refusal to pay would be ‘quashed’ and an ‘up to date’ request from the board should be submitted, which the council will be ‘required to respond to’.

Leader of the Council Martin Lury (LDem, Bersted) told a meeting of the full council on Wednesday, January 8, although it is ‘unclear’ exactly how much the council will need to pay, the board could request around £18 million following the decision.

He said: “This would result in additional borrowing costs of approximately £1 million per annum over a 40 year period.

“The council’s current net revenue budget is £28 million and the burden of these costs would be extremely damaging.

“It would probably mean cuts to other valuable public services provided by the council and probably would result in redundancies. The council will inform the public as soon as we’re able to share more information.”

The district council mainly argued that under section 19 of the West Sussex County Council 1972, under which the board’s request was made, the ‘disproportionate and unaffordable’ capital costs were not covered.

The board claimed that this was a misinterpretation and an ‘error of law’.

The Littlehampton Harbour Board also said they were seeing budget constraints and were likely to go bankrupt due to the infrastructure costs, stating in the decision it would ‘not have sufficient funds to meet its core duties’ without the funds requested from the council.

The decision notes that for the last 23 years the harbour has relied on support from West Sussex County and Arun District councils to stay afloat.

It says this is due to debts with the Public Works Loan board, ongoing budget deficits using its generated income which cannot be put away for repairs, and a reduction in commercial shipping through the harbour due to ships getting larger and outdated harbour infrastructure.

The board applied in 2019 for a Harbour Revision Order from the government to help the board put money away to update its infrastructure, but this remains undetermined.