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Written by 5 November 2025
On the 5th November 2025 Tom Willis, Chief Executive of Shoreham Port presented alongside Dr Geoffrey Mead at Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham. Sue Royal, our Port Archivist has written a summary of the event, highlighting the key themes and topics of conversation which took place during the Q&A session.
Ships powered by electricity and hydrogen, guided by AI, may only be a decade away, Shoreham Port CEO Tom Willis told an audience at the Ropetackle Arts Centre yesterday.
The Port would like to use its facilities to foster research and development into autonomous vessels, green strategies, and marine education, perhaps even a marine university, he told the meeting about the past and future of the Port.
Public access to Southwick beach will not be restricted once the Port takes on ownership, Tom Willis added.
The sale of the beach and the adjoining land will complete early next year, and then investment and repair of infrastructure will be a priority, he said, answering questions about the future of the Port.
Southwick Reef, which could be the biggest living sea wall in the country, is being constructed to attract maximum marine biodiversity.
It will be the subject of a ten-year PhD study with local people able to come and view the increase in marine wildlife and plants in rock pools.
Whilst electrification will reduce the emissions of HGVs it won’t resolve congestion. One solution could be moving goods currently on road by sea using a new generation of vessels powered by renewable energy, Tom Willis said, in response to a question about blue sky thinking
Dr Geoffrey Mead, local historian and geographer, spoke about the Port’s history.
In the past, the challenge was to master coastal erosion and movement of the shingle bar to create a stable harbour entrance.
Cargo arrived from as far away as Russia, Canada and America, and up to 1914 the UK’s primary export was wool, Dr Mead said.
Boulder men collected flints from the beach to be used in glassmaking, and copperas was gathered at low tide for the printing trade. The artist Philip Wilson Steer and writer Daniel Defoe visited, and Constable painted colliers arriving on Brighton beach.
