Brighton and Hove seafront looks to the future

The city council is starting a consultation over the winter on a strategy to inform the development of eight miles of the seafront from Hove Lagoon to Saltdean taking in key landmarks and sites along the way. 

Residents, traders and other interested parties are invited to have their say on making Brighton & Hove's famous seafront even better.

The seafront is the city’s prime attraction, providing a huge draw to the more than eight million visitors a year who visit Brighton & Hove, and is of vital importance to city’s tourism economy which contributes an estimated £732 million to the local economy each year.  

A draft seafront strategy sets out broad ideas for developing and enhancing the character of the city’s 13km (eight miles) of coastline, stretching from Hove Lagoon to Saltdean.

Click here to download Draft B&H Seafront Strategy

The draft strategy seeks

“to develop the unique character areas of the iconic Brighton & Hove seafront to create attractive, sustainable, high quality environments for residents, businesses and visitors throughout the year”.  

The draft strategy sets out over-arching themes for the whole length of the seafront and looks at the character of individual areas along the seafront, identifying potential opportunities for improvement to encourage more people to visit the area. Madeira Drive is earmarked as a key area for improvement, with the emphasis on family leisure attractions.  

The over-arching themes covered are:

Active seafront - people being active whether physically or enjoying culture.

Seafront management - the day to day operation of the seafront.

Seafront economy -  management of the council’s property portfolio.

Tourism development - improving the seafront’s tourism offer.

Seafront architecture and coastal protection - maintenance of infrastructure.

Seafront regeneration projects - potential large scale development areas.

Connectivity - access along and to the seafront.  

The whole length of the seafront from Hove Lagoon to Saltdean has been divided into a range of 'character areas' based on their prime use:

Hove Lagoon to King Alfred - Sport

King Alfred to Peace Statue - Informal recreation / outdoor events

Peace Statue to Ellipse - Leisure attraction and sports facilities             

Ellipse to Palace Pier- Commercial leisure

Palace Pier to Brighton Marina - Family leisure attractions and facilities

Roedean to Saltdean - Recreation   

Click here to download Draft B&H Seafront Strategy

 Brighton and Hove Seafront facts:

-The seafront plays a hugely significant role in tourism in Brighton & Hove, which contributes an estimate £732million per year to the city’s economy and sustains 17,500 jobs (13,000 full time equivalents)

- An estimated quarter of a million visitors are attracted to the area between the two piers on a sunny summer weekend

- It is the largest outdoor recreation space in the city

- More than 40 sports and recreational events and 21 cultural events are being held on the seafront this year

- Last year the council's seafront team attended 179 first aid incidents and gave safety advice on 8,309 occasions

- The seafront has two international Blue Flag awards and three national Quality Coast Awards

- The seafront has been used as a filming location for a wide variety of films, TV programmes and advertisements, from Quadrophenia to Brighton Rock

- The council owns over 200 properties along the seafront, from beach chalets to artists' arches to nightclubs. The 28 artist arches are required to sell products made on the premises to encourage good quality local art.