In Pictures: Paddle-Out Protest takes place in Hastings

The Surfers Against Sewage Paddle-Out Protests were held nationwide on Saturday (May 17).

From 1:30pm, people started to arrive at the beach next to Source Park, on Hastings seafront, with banners and costumes and took to the water around 2:15pm, as passersby looked on curiously to see what was happening.

The protest was organised locally by Plastic Free Hastings coordinator Amanda Jobson, along with Colin Darbyshire, in partnership with the Clean Water Action group.

Amanda Jobson said: "All over the UK, coastal communities are taking to our waters to paddle-out to share messages on protecting and conserving our seas, which are essential to marine life and our community. We're asking this government one year on to put people and the environment before these profiteering water companies. We want to make sure that our message gets back to central government, and the government has an opportunity now to make sure, with the new water reform coming up in Parliament, that we put people and our environment before profiteering.

"We want to see those natural solutions in place. We want to see those water butts, those containers. We know that in the UK there's been over half a million sewage outflows. That means one every minute”

Also showing her support at the protest was Helena Dollimore, MP for Hastings and Rye.

She said: “It's great to be here with so many residents protesting. In Parliament I sit on the cross-party Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee and we've been calling in the water bosses one by one to have them answer for their failures this week. We heard from Thames Water some pretty shocking things about how they've been running that company and the huge bonuses and dividends they've been paying out.

"I’m really pleased that the government is acting to ban their bonuses and we're passing legislation to crack down on the bad behaviour of the water companies, but we in Hastings and Rye need to keep having our voices heard. The Clean Water Action group here do amazing work testing the sea locally, and Surfers Against Sewage I work with at national level campaigning against this stuff, so let's keep having our voices heard and saying this has got to end.”

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) started in 1990 in St. Agnes and Porthtowan, Cornwall, and they say that what began as a local uprising is now a vital community of nationwide Ocean Activists fighting to see the ocean thrive. They have grown into one of the UK’s most successful marine conservation and campaigning charities and say: "For people to thrive and live life to the fullest, the ocean must thrive too. And so we need to confront all that threatens it.

"We are a campaigning charity made up of water lovers who protect the ocean, and all it makes possible. We take action on the ground that triggers change at the top. Action from the beachfront to the front bench."

Becca Horn, a local Green councillor and Clean Water Action campaigner, expressed concern about the amount of sewage discharges. "I remain concerned about the level of discharges that are going into our waterways, particularly when we've had heavy rainfall. I'm also concerned that the Environment Agency don't have the resources to test all year round. That is something that we've been pushing for right from the get-go, is year-round testing of our waters so that we know they're safe for people to use.”

The last paddle-out took place in Hastings on May 18 2024.