Around 150 local residents crowded into Walmer Parish Hall for the launch of Save Our Seas Deal and Walmer, SOSDAW, on Fri 3rd January, a new community campaign group open to all.
Two keen environmental campaigners, Jonathan and Emily Groves, and two volunteer organisers of the local Green Party, Christine Oliver and Sarah Waite-Gleave, worked hard over the festive period to get the new community campaign up and running by 3rd Jan. It has been supported since December by EKCA, East Kent Climate Action. Concerns over deteriorating seawater quality at Deal Beach surfaced as local front page news in July 2024. The rating by the Environment Agency (EA) was ‘excellent’ in 2019; reduced to ‘good’ in 2021; reduced to ‘sufficient’ in 2023. A context which meant that when in 23 August the Environment Agency recorded a ‘spike’ of e.coli and sewage, the downgrading went down to ‘poor’ from sufficient, and advice was published that it was not advisable to swim. This situation angered many in Deal and Walmer communities. It caused the cancellation of the Boxing Day dip.
The new community campaign group, SOSDAW, has its own email address sos deal and walmer @ gmail . com (remove spaces), a mailing list of nearly 200 since its launch and a petition http://www.change.org/p/clean-deal-walmer-coastal-waters with the aim of focussing the campaign and pushing those with responsibility for the issue (Southern Water, EA, DEFRA, DDC and KCC) to clean up and re-grade fast by December 2025, instead of waiting until Southern Water have to report to EA in Spring 2027. The petition gained 1000+ signatures in the 5 days after the launch.
SOSDAW want actions in East Kent to include:
- An immediate and long-lasting increase in the frequency of seawater testing by both Southern Water and the regulator EA, with an increase in the number of sites where testing is done between Sandown Castle, North Deal and Boundary Road, Walmer / Kingsdown.
- Surveys of, and speedy upgrading of, infrastructure such as Southern Water assets (pipes, holding tanks, settlement tanks, etc); Infrastructure upgrades to put an end to storm overflow releases (given that there is a Kent-wide call to be more resilient in the face of more frequent extreme downpours and surface flooding) ; complete separation of foul sewage and surface water everywhere in CT14 postal area, including connections to Golf Road WPS.
- Any sewage leakages originating at DDC owned properties including Deal Pier to be thoroughly repaired and pipes replaced at speed in 2025. The in-depth investigation by Southern Water which aims to report to EA by May 2027, to provide a public interim report by Dec 2025, given we have key coastal events due to happen in Walmer in summer 2026. EA to work on a ‘Step Change’ process speedily and work with the local community to identify problems, resolve them and enable an upgrade in seawater bathing quality in 2025.
- Increased forward planning so that water companies become statutory consultees on all industrial, tourism, and housing developments and are required to provide Local Planning Authorities with reports on how developments will impact capacity and will connect to existing waste / foul water infrastructure before planning applications are approved; a speedy end to illegal / accidental misconnections of new bathrooms to the storm water drainage systems.
The petition contains a section on the background context relating to the water industry. The petition was informed by evidence given on 16 December 2024 to the DDC Overview and Scrutiny Cttee when 90 minutes were spent questioning Southern Water and Environment Agency representatives about pollution in coastal waters in the district.
Private swimmers can decide for themselves whether to swim or not, whether to dismiss the EA rating, given our fast-flowing local currents. But organisers of seawater-based events (boxing day dip, rowing / sailing regattas) who need Public Liability Insurance are impacted when a reading of human faecal matter is recorded and local seabathing quality is down-graded. As has happened steadily since 2019.
Chair of the launch meeting, Green Party campaigner, Sarah Waite-Gleave said, “last night people were kind enough to thank us for getting organised fast. It was a lot of work over the Xmas weeks! Unfortunately the speakers we were expecting from Surfers against Sewage and Sewage Coalition (who did a parliamentary briefing on 9th Dec) couldn’t make it, so colleagues Emily Groves, Sam Brookfield and Mike Eddy had to step in at short notice, warm thanks go to them. The deputy leader of DDC, cllr Jamie Pout, cabinet member for environmental services and transport, turned up unexpectedly in the audience, and spoke during the Q&As which was very helpful from the point of view of public information. Those of us who are town councillors are also working with colleagues on Walmer and Deal Town Councils to get Southern Water to clean up our coastal waters.”
The public are asked to use the Environment Agency hotline to report any problems 0800 80 70 60 . To support the campaign, residents can sign the petition www.change.org/p/clean-deal-walmer-coastal-waters and join future demonstrations to demand a clean up and re-grading of our coastal waters fast. The launch was front page news in the Mercury on 8th January. The new campaign group has an instagram account @sosdealandwalmer and is on Blue Sky too @sosdaw.bshy.social that readers can follow for updates on the next actions that will be taken.