Surfers Against Sewage agreed that I should become the "Community Leader" whose role it is to steer our activities towards gaining "PLASTIC FREE EASTBOURNE". I asked for this motion to be debated by our council and spoke to it:
“That this Council welcomes the objectives of the Plastic Free Coastlines campaign, committing to consider the use of appropriate plastic-free alternatives wherever possible, and supporting plastic free initiatives within Eastbourne.”
BIG NEWS. Our Borough Council voted UNANIMOUSLY to support this motion.
This means that we can progress as a town to gain the award of “Plastic Free Eastbourne”. We need to meet 5 objectives set by Surfers Against Sewage, the charity organisation that manages this initiative. One of these objectives is to hold 2 beach cleans each year. Our first is publicised below.
Please visit our website, which is being developed: Click Here
and explore. For example, click on the “Events Calendar” page. Also, there is a page on the site called “Newsletters” where a newsletter simiilar to this press release will be available to read.
SCOOP! ~ Our FaceBook Group page now has over 1000 members since this began in early January! A fantastic development.
Two dates to watch out for are March 24th at 10am to the west of the pier and 25th at 11am to the east of the pier, when the Big Spring Beach Clean will take its turn in Eastbourne. All the dates for many beach cleans are on this website. A great amount of progress has been made in preparation for this potentially Massive Event. On Saturday 24th, our Mayor, Pat Hearn, will be opening the whole Beach Clean at Groyne 19, “Holywell Mount Bay” and will then visit all sites where volunteer groups will be working. Stephen Lloyd, our Member of Parliament, will be participating and the Town Council have agreed to volunteer too. Many Volunteer Groups will be running different stretches of the beach:
Constant Clean Up with SEA ~ Survival Equals Action, Eastbourne's Friends of the Earth and Eastbourne's Greenpeace, Bourne Coin will be cleaning on Saturday BeachClean Eastbourne, Zero Waste Maman, Eastbourne's Mucky Mermaids and A Band of Brothers will be cleaning on Sunday, as well as a group of Community Payback people.
We are supported by other groups too, such as Eastbourne Volunteers and Customer First Eastbourne Borough Council.
We hope to have a high profile publicity programme. This will enable everyone who wants to volunteer to choose where and when they would like to help. Please register online or simply come down to the beach on one of these mornings .
Further details will be shared in due course. Watch out for where to volunteer in our local media.
Our efforts in beach cleaning are coming on apace. There are so many groups and events taking place that everyone should be able to participate if desired. Others are doing the same further inland too. Fabulous.
There are other objectives too. If you want first-hand understanding of what is involved, you can access our “toolkit” by using this link: Click Here
