A CAMPAIGN group that aims to protect the ocean will be making the final two stops on its election road trip around the country.
Surfers Against Sewage will be visiting Plymouth onboard its double decker bus on Thursday, June 27 between 6pm and 7.30pm and St Agnes on Saturday, June 29 from 2pm to 4pm as part of its tour galvanising communities to demand election candidates end sewage pollution.
The SAS’s Election Road Trip is highlighting the dire state of rivers and seas as a key issue for voters at the general election in July.
The Election Road Trip has been taking the sewage debate to political, sewage and surfing hotspots, with all candidates invited to answer questions from locals at a series of hustings events.
The tour kicked off with a demonstration at Windermere on June 17 and has also taken in Edinburgh, Saltburn and Richmond in Yorkshire, Gower in Wales as well as Reading.
The eight destinations on the route are home to impassioned communities with a track record of campaigning on sewage pollution.
They are also politically important seats that are likely to be hotly contested on July 4. These include the key swing seats of Gower and Hastings and Rye, and the ‘red wall’ constituency of Redcar. There is also a stop reserved on the banks of the River Swale, in the constituency of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, where local activists have been fighting to clean up their favourite swimming spot.
The bus has also taken detours to the headquarters of five major water companies including Northumbrian Water, United Utilities, Severn Trent Water, Thames Water and South West Water. The SAS team delivered letters demanding CEOs clean up their act.
Giles Bristow, CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, said: “All aboard the Number Two bus – SAS is going on tour.
“We are hitting the road, wetsuits, and surfboards in tow, to raise a stink about the sewage scandal in major election battlegrounds across the UK. This election is a pivotal moment in the fight to end sewage pollution and we’re determined to grasp it with both hands - and to bring some much-needed fun to the battle-bus bore-fest while we do it. After all, road trips are in surfing's DNA.
“From Edinburgh to St Agnes, the SAS party bus will be taking an ever-changing crew of campaigners from town-to-town, helping local communities uncover which of their parliamentary candidates are truly committed to cutting the crap.
“We’ve been on the front line fighting against sewage pollution for more than 30 years and so we know how to sniff out flash-in-the-pan pledges from insincere vote-seeking candidates.
“Approaching our ninth General Election, our crack team of campaigners will be laser-focused on obtaining real commitments to deliver long-term change for our rivers and seas, from all political parties.
“This is a national issue that is firing up a real sense of fury and outrage in communities - a true thread that links voters up and down the country and across the political spectrum.
“We’re mobilising our SAS party bus to show election candidates that if tackling sewage pollution isn’t top of their to do list, their campaign needs a major rethink - fast.”