Watch as campaigners gather for Stop Southwick Sewage dumping protest

Campaigners dressed up and held up banners in protest against sewage discharges in the Adur district.  Video: Eddie Mitchell

Transcript

00:00 Enough is enough!

00:11 I'm Claire Osborne, I'm one of the local reps here in Brighton and Hove and Shoreham

00:17 for Surfers Against Sewage. Surfers Against Sewage is a not-for-profit organisation.

00:21 We are aiming to make ocean activists everywhere. So we're more than surfers,

00:25 we're more than sewage, we're trying to empower action from the beachfront to the front bench.

00:30 What we're doing here today is because there's been a sewage outfall, there's been a CSO here

00:35 running on Kingston Beach in Southwick for over 300 hours since Christmas and the local community

00:42 use this beach year-round as a bathing beach. So there are lots and lots of people around

00:47 the country that have been reporting sickness from swimming in polluted waters.

00:52 In 2023 there were 2,000 reported to us via our Safer Seas and River Services app and you can

00:59 download the Safer Seas and River Services app or the SSRS app via our website. You can report

01:04 sickness on there, you can write to your local MP, you can write to the water company CEO.

01:08 We want more people to have their voices heard to make a difference.

01:12 Here in Kingston, on Kingston Beach, we want Southern Water to stop putting sewage out through

01:22 the CSO. We want the local beach here to be designated by Ada, local authority,

01:28 as a bathing water beach. There are people that swim here all year round.

01:33 No people will make it happen. We don't want this.

01:37 When do we want it? Now.

01:42 When do we want it? Now.

01:44 I hear you loud. I hear you loud.

01:46 When do we want it? Now.

01:49 When do we want it? Now.

01:56 We want Southern Water to end dumping sewage in our waters here. We want Ada District Council

02:03 to designate this as a safe bathing water beach and do the quality testing that we need.

02:08 We want bathing water, we want signage up here so that bathers know to bathe at their own risk.

02:14 When do we want it? Now.

02:17 I hear you loud. People power.

02:21 What do we want? No food.

02:26 What do we have to say to Southern Water? No food.

02:28 What do we have to say to water companies who take dividends out of the system and fail to

02:37 repair sewage infrastructure? No food.

02:41 What do we say to the government? No food.

02:43 ...water for the environment agency. It's not the new government, it's the

02:47 government. That's what I really need to say.

02:49 People power.

02:51 People power.

02:53 People power.

02:55 In the last poem.

02:57 ...in the sea, a toxic disgrace.

03:05 Disgrace.

03:07 Disgrace.

03:09 (crowd chatter)

03:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]