East Sussex, England

Bexhill-on-Sea put-in (Rother)

Launch — The slipway crosses Bexhill's promenade at Collington onto a shingle beach; the shoreline exposes soft sand and mud at low tide.

Parking — The free, council-run Polegrove car park lies around 230 m from the slipway, holding 24 vehicles with a 12-hour maximum stay.

Access — Vehicles are barred from parking on the beach, promenade or adjoining hard standings under Rother's Public Spaces Protection Order; exemptions are granted only for essential use, not recreational or commercial activity.

Season — Rother District Council runs lifeguard patrols on Bexhill's beach daily between 10:00 and 18:00 from 18 July to 6 September, marking a kayak and surf zone with black and white chequered flags; outside those hours and dates the council states "no flags = no lifeguards".

Regulations — Rother District Council's byelaws for the seashore and for promenades govern this frontage. No launch fee or permit was found for carried, unpowered craft; only annual licences apply to boats and winches kept on the foreshore. Motorised personal watercraft are barred here, with the council's only designated jet ski site at Rye Harbour and prosecution threatened for launches elsewhere. The water offshore lies within the Beachy Head East Marine Conservation Zone, where Sussex IFCA byelaws cap commercial vessel length at 14 metres within the 6-nautical-mile baseline.

This slipway sits on Bexhill's promenade at Collington and gives access to the English Channel on the Sussex coast, between Hastings and Eastbourne.

Pevensey to Eastbourne coastal scheme

The shingle beach at Collington forms part of a 15-kilometre frontage running from Holywell at Eastbourne to Cooden Beach at Bexhill, managed by the Environment Agency as the Pevensey to Eastbourne Coastal Management Scheme. Groynes cross the beach at intervals as part of the scheme's flood defences.

The Agency is investing more than £100 million in the scheme over the next decade to keep homes, businesses and infrastructure safe, planning against a sea level rise of up to 1.15 metres by 2100.

Beachy Head East Marine Conservation Zone

The water offshore lies within the Beachy Head East Marine Conservation Zone, a 195 km² site designated in May 2019. It protects chalk reefs described by the site's own record as rare in European waters, together with sandstone reef systems and beds of blue mussel and tube-building ross worm.

The zone is recorded as a feeding ground for cuckoo wrasse, plaice, Dover sole and small-spotted catshark, and is home to the short-snouted seahorse and native oyster. A Sussex IFCA byelaw excludes trawling from most of the MCZ, extending protection to nearly 500 km² of Sussex's nearshore seabed together with an earlier byelaw.

Nearby

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Sovereign Light Café

A café on West Parade, about 450 m along the promenade from the slipway.

Conditions to check

Shallow or rocky

Groynes and outfall pipes cross the beach, and the council warns of rocks, underwater obstructions and sandbars close to shore.

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Tidal flow

The council warns of fast incoming tides.

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Other

Weeverfish can sting; the council advises wearing suitable footwear when paddling at low tide.

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Other

The council flags dangerous offshore winds with an orange flag or windsock, warning that they will blow inflatables out to sea.

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