Water and energy in Southbourne
Figures last changed 20 October 2026. House prices for Southbourne are on the main Southbourne page.
On this page: How often does sewage spill near Southbourne? · How clean is the water for swimming near Southbourne? · How energy efficient are homes in Southbourne?
How often does sewage spill near Southbourne?
The eight monitored storm overflows within 1.5 km of a Southbourne postcode spilled 63 times in 2025, for 602 hours in all, on the water companies' returns to the Environment Agency. The busiest was Thornham wastewater works, which empties into Chichester Harbour via Little Deep: 37 spills and 361 hours across its three outlets. In 2024, the monitored overflows within 1.5 km of a Southbourne postcode spilled 116 times, for 1,213 hours. The Environment Agency put much of the fall across England down to an unusually dry 2025 after a particularly wet 2024. A storm overflow lets diluted sewage out into a river or the sea when heavy rain overloads the sewers. The counts use the Agency's method, in which the first 12 hours of a spill count as one and each 24 hours after that as another.
Source: Environment Agency storm overflow annual returns (Event Duration Monitoring) · Environment Agency: fewer and shorter storm overflow spills in 2025.
What locals say
- Sewage in the harbour has been a daily talking point in Southbourne and the other waterside villages for about twelve years.
How clean is the water for swimming near Southbourne?
Chichester Harbour itself is not a designated bathing water, so the Environment Agency does not test it for swimming or give it a rating. The nearest beach the Agency does rate is West Wittering, a median 7.9 km from Southbourne's postcodes in a straight line, rated Excellent for 2025; next is Hayling Eastoke, 8.5 km away and rated Excellent. A rating covers the last four summers of samples, not any one day, and new ratings come out each November. Separately, the Food Standards Agency classes the top of the Thorney Channel, off Prinsted, as Prohibited for harvesting shellfish (list updated 1 October 2026); that is about shellfish, not swimming water, and nowhere else in the harbour is classed for harvesting. Storm overflow spills near Southbourne are covered in the sewage answer on this page.
Source: Environment Agency bathing water quality · Food Standards Agency shellfish classifications.
How energy efficient are homes in Southbourne?
Better than the area as a whole, on their energy performance certificates. Of the 2,325 homes in Southbourne with a certificate on the government register, 58% are rated C or better, against 50% across the Chichester council area; the most common rating is D. Mains gas heats 91% of the 2,325 whose main fuel is recorded, and electricity 8%. 45 have a heat pump. Of the 2,273 whose certificate records it, only 5% have no mains gas connection; 52 certificates do not say. 9% have solar panels, and 31 have solar water heating. A certificate is only made when a home is sold, let or built, so homes that rarely change hands are missing, and an old one shows a home as it was then. Each home's latest certificate is used: issued between 2008 and 2026, half of them since 2019.
Source: Energy Performance of Buildings Register (GOV.UK Get energy performance of buildings data).
Figures cover 215 postcodes in Southbourne. How these figures are made.