Many of you will have been wondering what has been happening with the ‘Stage by the Sea’ project on the seafront at Littlehampton.

There is good news and bad news. The good news is that the project is 90% completed and will be finished before the start of the summer season. The bad news is that this is considerably behind schedule as the Town Council did hope that it would be finished before Christmas 2013.

The delay on the build, initially through inclement weather, caused significant problems for the management contractor Cavendish Consultancy and the Town Council were advised at the beginning of January that the company had gone into liquidation.  Fortunately the sub-contractor Shotcrete who has been constructing the stage is prepared to complete the work in spite of financial losses as they believe very much in the project and are justly proud of their work to date.

Cllr Dr James Walsh KStJ, who has been on the Stage by the Sea Working Group since the idea was formed, said: “The news was a bitter disappointment to the Town Council initially but we believe we have found a way through it which will ensure we have an end result we can all be proud of.”

Providing we have some respite from the terrible weather the contractors hope to be back on site shortly and to complete the structure by mid March Landscapers will then be on site immediately after to finish off the project.

Littlehampton Mayor Cllr Joyce Bowyer said: ‘”I feel passionate about this project and although we have had to manage a number of difficulties I am determined we will celebrate its opening within my mayoral year and we look forward to the local community sharing this celebration with us.”

The launch event initially planned for Sunday 6th April will be rescheduled for a later date which will be widely advertised.