West Wittering beach prepares to reopen – with first few days already fully booked

In order to support social distancing measures, only a limited number of cars will be allowed to park at the beach each day.

Visitors will have to pre-pay for parking by using the parking app, JustPark.

Thousands of people have downloaded the app and spaces have now been fully booked from Wednesday to Friday.

The Estate hopes the new system will ensure that people wishing to visit the beach do not have a wasted journey.

Potential visitors are strongly discouraged from driving to the West Wittering area without a pre-booked parking slot – as there is no other parking within the village.

A spokesman for the Estate said: “By checking the JustPark pre-pay booking app before setting off, our visitors will know whether there is capacity in the car park or if it would be better to plan to visit on another day.

“You will be able to book a parking space up to three days prior to your visit – if you don’t book, sadly you will be turned away.

“We look forward to welcoming back some visitors from May 27th.

“It’s our utmost priority to protect the safety of visitors and our staff, so we’ve taken the necessary steps to introduce a responsible car park capacity and pre-pay entry only scheme.

“This will allow us to ensure social distancing is practical and means visitors can feel confident in their safety by effectively following the two-metre social distancing rule.

“We are continuing to work closely with the local authority and Highways Agency to ensure a safe environment both on the beach, on the roads network in our area and in the wider community.

“As there is no available on-street parking within the village we would ask that people not to drive and visit the beach without a pre-booking, and be considerate towards our neighbours and local community.”

The changes will not impact season ticket holders, the spokesman added.

The beach remained to close for visitors over the bank holiday weekend.

The spokesman said the estate was ‘not confident’ it would able to maintain adequate social distancing should a large volume of cars arrive, as is typical on a sunny Bank Holiday.

For more information on the new parking scheme, please visit westwitteringestate.co.uk.

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