Council car park charges rise on 24 August 2026 and the A27 Worthing upgrade is cancelled. What is being dug up, which routes to use, and where to check before you drive.
Two things are worth knowing before you drive in Worthing this month. Council car park charges go up on 24 August 2026, and the promised A27 upgrade through the town is not coming: National Highways confirmed the A27 Worthing and Lancing improvements scheme is cancelled, and is closing the project down. Everything else on this page is the practical detail: what is currently dug up, which routes work, and where to check live before you set off.
Parking: new charges from 24 August 2026
Worthing Borough Council published a notice of variation on 20 July 2026 raising off-street parking charges, with the new tariffs taking effect on 24 August 2026. The rise is about 3.5%.
| Stay | Now | From 24 August |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1 hour | £1.50 | £1.55 |
| Up to 2 hours | £3.20 | £3.30 |
| Up to 3 hours | £4.70 | £4.85 |
| Up to 4 hours | £6.20 | £6.40 |
| Up to 5 hours | £7.70 | £7.90 |
| Up to 12 hours | £13.00 | £13.40 |
Sunday rates rise from £1.20 to £1.25 for an hour and from £6.00 to £6.20 for the day. The annual High Street season ticket goes from £1,403.50 to £1,452.60, and the town centre worker and hotel guest daily permit from £7.00 to £7.25, both plus the 25p admin charge.
The three town-centre multi-storeys are Buckingham Road (BN11 1TH, 235 public spaces, 1.8m height barrier), High Street (BN11 1LY, 624 spaces, 2.05m barrier) and Civic Quarter off Richmond Road (BN11 1HS, 173 spaces, many of them NHS-only, 2.1m barrier). Buckingham Road and High Street are pay on arrival; Civic Quarter is pay and display. All are open 24 hours, night parking from 10pm to 6am is free at Buckingham Road and High Street, and disabled access at High Street is currently restricted by ongoing works, with no step-free route when the lift is out.
What is being dug up
The heat network works in the town centre are largely done. Hemiko’s first phase, which connected the Town Hall, Worthing Hospital, the Assembly Hall, Portland House, the Museum and the Connaught Theatre, ran from summer 2024 to late 2025 and was the phase that closed lanes and reversed one-way streets across Chapel Road, Union Place, High Street, Park Road, Richmond Road and Lyndhurst Road. The second phase, connecting Splashpoint Leisure Centre and the Pavilion Theatre, began in January 2026 and was scheduled to finish before the school summer holidays. It was designed to be far less disruptive: about 16% of the pipe route needed installing under roads and pavements, against a much larger share in phase one, with tunnelling used under the promenade and Steyne Gardens rather than open trenches.
The pier repair starts this month. Worthing Pier has been carrying a temporary steel support since December 2024, installed after storm damage to its piles closed it suddenly in October 2024. The permanent repair, forecast at up to £550,000 against an original £930,000 estimate, was due to begin on site in August and finish before the end of autumn. Work happens on the beach during each month’s spring low tides, and because the engineers are working from below rather than lifting the deck, the pier stays open throughout.
The pier, Splashpoint and the Pavilion all stay open while this work goes on, and all three are on our list of places worth visiting in Worthing.
Groyne work resumes after the school holidays. The Environment Agency’s £5m scheme to renew Worthing’s coastal defences, running from Seaview Road east to the Adur border at Brooklands Park, completed in July 2026 after eight months. More planks still need fitting to the groynes, and that work was paused until after the summer holidays to keep the beach clear.
The roads that matter
- A27. The trunk road behind the town, and the only fast east-west route. It carries everything between Brighton and Chichester, it is single carriageway in places, and it is where a Worthing hold-up hurts most. The government cancelled the improvement scheme in 2024 and National Highways is winding the project up, so the road you have is the road you get for the foreseeable future.
- A24. North from the A27 at Offington towards Findon, Horsham and eventually London. This is the alternative when the A27 is shut east of town, and the standard diversion route.
- A259. The seafront and coast road, west through Goring and Ferring towards Littlehampton, east through Lancing towards Shoreham. Slow, full of crossings, but it is the fallback when the A27 stops.
- The coastal railway is the genuine bypass. Four stations serve the borough, Worthing, West Worthing, East Worthing and Durrington-on-Sea, and the train reaches Brighton in 23 minutes and Gatwick in 51, which beats the A27 on both.
There is no park and ride in Worthing. If you are coming in for the day, the council’s long-stay surface car parks at Beach House East and West on the seafront, and the Brooklands car parks on Western Road and Brighton Road at the Lancing end, avoid the town-centre one-way system altogether.
Where to check before you drive
- West Sussex County Council roadworks map, which runs on one.network and shows current and planned works street by street, including utility works the council does not carry out itself.
- National Highways live travel updates for the A27, which is a trunk road and therefore not on the county’s list.
- Adur & Worthing Councils travel news, which is the council’s own signposting page for closures and events.
- West Sussex temporary road closures for formal notices, which is where a closure appears before the cones do.
Frequently asked questions
Are Worthing parking charges going up?
Yes. New tariffs take effect on 24 August 2026 under a notice of variation dated 20 July 2026. An hour in the town-centre multi-storeys rises from £1.50 to £1.55 and the 12-hour maximum from £13.00 to £13.40.
Is the A27 Worthing upgrade still happening?
No. National Highways lists the A27 Worthing and Lancing improvements as cancelled, following the Chancellor’s announcement that the A27 schemes would not be taken forward, and is bringing the project to a close.
Is Worthing Pier open during the repairs?
Yes. The permanent repair works from beneath the deck at spring low tides, so the pier is expected to stay open while it is carried out between August and the end of autumn 2026.
Are the heat network roadworks finished?
The disruptive first phase across the civic quarter finished at the end of 2025. The second phase, on the promenade and through Steyne Gardens, was scheduled to complete before the school summer holidays and needed only about 16% of its route dug under roads and pavements.
Is there a park and ride in Worthing?
No. The nearest equivalents are the long-stay seafront and Brooklands car parks, or leaving the car at one of the borough’s four railway stations.
Sources
- Worthing Borough Council notice of variation, changes to parking charges in Worthing car parks, dated 20 July 2026, new charges from 24 August 2026 (PDF)
- Car parks in Worthing, Adur & Worthing Councils, for spaces, height barriers and current tariffs
- A27 Worthing and Lancing improvements (cancelled), National Highways
- Next phase of Worthing Heat Network to cause fewer disruptions for town centre, 20 January 2026, and the council’s Worthing Heat Network project page
- Work to begin on permanent repair for Worthing Pier, 3 July 2026
- Improved coastal defences will protect Worthing from the sea, 30 July 2026
Roadworks change daily. Checked against the sources above on 10 August 2026; use the live maps before you travel.
Have your say
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