Worthing Borough Council signed a £111,333 contract on 3 September to rebuild the Town Hall housing reception. Councillors can call it in until 10 September.

Worthing Borough Council has signed a £111,333 contract to rebuild the ground floor housing reception at Worthing Town Hall. The decision was taken on 3 September. It becomes final on 11 September unless a councillor calls it in first.

The work goes to DM Habens (The Builder) Limited for a net contract sum of £111,333.46. Four contractors were invited to tender through the Delta eTendering portal, and the council’s record says DM Habens scored highest overall. The job is paid for from the council’s capital budget. (Adur & Worthing Councils decision SDforO&E/029/26-27)

The room being rebuilt

This is not a back office. The council’s own homelessness page sends people there in person, on the day.

“If you are homeless within the next 7 days, or have nowhere to sleep tonight,” it says, “come to Worthing Town Hall between 9am and 4pm, Monday to Friday to talk to a Housing Officer.” Anyone escaping a violent situation is told to “just come to Worthing Town Hall”. The page also warns that “you may have to wait on the day to be seen”. (Adur & Worthing Councils, help if you’re homeless or at risk of losing your home)

The decision record describes the job as “Alterations to Ground Floor Housing Reception Area & Interview Rooms”. It covers:

  • demolishing the existing internal partitions and ceilings
  • building new partitions and ceilings to improve accessibility to the existing interview rooms
  • acoustic separation between rooms
  • security between the public and staff areas
  • upgrades to the existing mechanical ventilation system, and associated mechanical and electrical alterations

Acoustic separation means soundproofing between the interview rooms. The record does not say what prompted any of the five items, and it does not name a problem being fixed.

Two Worthing Town Hall contracts signed in August and September 2026: roof repairs phase one at £79,916 excluding VAT approved 19 August, and housing reception alterations at £111,333.46 approved 3 September, with a call-in deadline of 10 September
Graphic by The Worthing Express
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A second Town Hall contract, two weeks earlier

On 19 August the same service director approved £79,916, excluding VAT, for Clarke Roofing Southern Ltd to carry out the first phase of repairs to the Town Hall roof. That decision took effect on 27 August and its call-in period has expired. (Adur & Worthing Councils decision SDforO&E/019/26-27)

The record sets out water getting in at two places:

  • the rolled lead sheet over the portico roof, above the four columns on the front, where it meets the main roof. The timber valley rafter beneath it “has decayed quite substantially” and has to be replaced.
  • the south west corner, where the slate roof meets the council chamber, around the existing lead cover flashings and a nearby fixed rooflight.

Replacing the decayed rafter is subject to listed building consent and conservation officer approval, the record says. No such application appears on the council’s own planning register. A search of the register on 4 September returned 18 applications at the Town Hall, and the most recent is AWDM/0757/25 from June 2025, for a wall mounted defibrillator. (Adur & Worthing planning register, simple search for “Town Hall Chapel Road”)

The reception decision does not mention listed building consent at all. Internal work at the Town Hall has needed it before: application 99/00812/LBC, on the same register, sought listed building consent for alterations to the ground, first and second floors.

This is explicitly phase one. The record says the main part of the roof will be “worked upon in the months ahead”, and gives no figure for what that will cost.

One caveat on that second contract. The decision record names only “the Town Hall”. The two councils have exactly two buildings, Worthing Town Hall on Chapel Road and the Shoreham Centre on Pond Road, and only Worthing Town Hall is a listed building with a portico and a council chamber. (Adur & Worthing Councils, contact us)

The building

Worthing Town Hall was built in 1933 and 1934 to a design by C Cowles Voysey, with detailing by J Brandon-Jones. It has been Grade II listed since 19 January 1982.

Historic England’s entry describes a “hipped slate roof with stone eave cornice” and a “central Ionic Portico” carrying the motto EX TERRA COPIAM E MARI SALUTEM, which translates as plenty from the land, health from the sea. Those are the two parts of the building the roofing contract covers. (Historic England, list entry 1250786)

Together the two contracts commit £191,249 to the Town Hall in a little over a fortnight, before VAT on the roofing job.

What it means for you

  • The housing reception is still open. Neither record gives a start date, and neither says whether the reception will close while the work is done.
  • The Town Hall desk takes drop-in documents without an appointment, 9am to 4pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and 9.30am to 4pm on Thursday. To speak to an adviser about anything that is not an emergency, you need to book by phone first.
  • If you are homeless within seven days or have nowhere to sleep tonight, the council says to go to the Town Hall in person between 9am and 4pm, Monday to Friday. The Housing Needs team is on 01903 221063.
  • The reception contract can still be stopped. It is a key decision and is subject to call-in until 10 September 2026. The register recorded no call-ins as at 4 September.

Planning applications in the borough, including any listed building consent for the roof, appear on our Worthing planning news page. If you are driving to the Town Hall, tariffs and zones are on our parking in Worthing page, and the charge for your property band is on our council tax bands page.

Sources