Today clean water campaigners Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) are celebrating the Scottish Government recognising recreational water users' need for a voice on Regional Planning Partnerships within the Scottish Marine Bill after this mornings SAS action at Holyrood.
This morning, ahead of ministers voting on Scottish Marine Bill amendments, SAS took to the water outside the Scottish parliament with surfboards, wind surfs, kayaks, kite surfboards and bodyboards and armed with loud hailers to ensure the voice of water users was heard loud and clear. SAS campaigners were joined by Robin Harper Green MSP who forwarded the amendment on behalf of Scottish water... Read more
This is the last year as a teenager for Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) as next year is our 20th anniversary. Our 19th year was one of our busiest and most successful years campaigning.
2009 started with yet another shipping accident, this time our beaches were covered in timber. Let's hope we escape a serious shipping catastrophe in 2010.
January and February brought a couple of campaign victories. Firstly new regulations came into force to prevent sewage discharge from ships.
And after more than 20 campaign actions in Guernsey, the island finally committed to full sewage treatment! Great news for Guernsey as currently 65,000... Read more
Based on the discussions around stage 2 of the Marine (Scotland) Bill by members of the Rural Affairs and Environment committee today, the Scottish Green Party and SAS have made the decision to withhold formal submission of the Surfing Reserves amendment till stage 3 of the bill, when all MSPs will be allowed to vote on the matter.
SAS are disappointed that the meeting among the limited number of MSPs within the committee meant we could not confidently add Surfing Reserves in as an amendment at stage 2. This was much to the surprise of both SAS and the Greens because... Read more
Today Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) campaigners and supporters visited The Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, Edinburgh. The campaigners were in the water calling for Surfing Reserves outside Holyrood holding aloft their 9ft surfboard emblazoned with the Saltire (the Scottish Flag), and were joined by Green MSP Robin Harper.
SAS are calling for the Scottish Government to help protect Scottish waves and include Surfing Reserves in the Marine Bill. The Surfing Reserves initiative will go before the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee of the Scottish Parliament to be debated tomorrow, 25th of November.
SAS are calling for support on Surfing Reserves to be included in... Read more
Surfers Against Sewage fighting for first time EU bathing water designation at Portballintrae
Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) campaigners and local surfers hand delivered a petition to the HQ of the Department of Environment Northern Ireland (DOENI) today, 17th November, when this years bathing water results were issued. SAS's Love Your Beach campaign petition, with more than 450 signatures, calls for the popular yet undesignated recreational waters at Portballintrae's Runkerry Strand to receive full EU bathing water designation.
In February 2009 SAS launched their Love Your Beach campaign, which will enable recreational water users to apply for 'bathing water' designation for their recreational... Read more
Clean water campaigners Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) have received strong support for a pilot scheme to warn beach users ofpotential poor water qualityat a meeting organised by MP Julia Goldsworthy. The pilot project will be running on (some) beaches in the South West for the 2010 bathing season.
Attending the meeting with SAS and Liberal Democrat MP, Julia Goldsworthy, were the Environment Agency, the RNLI, Cornwall Council, Consumer Council for Water and South West Water (SWW).
Since SAS starred in this summer's Panorama, "Britain's Dirty Beaches", the most watched Panorama of the year, SAS have been lobbying for short term pollution warnings.... Read more
Kelly Slater, 9 times Surfing World Champion, and widely recognised as the greatest surfer ever, supports Surfers Against Sewage's (SAS) Protect Our Waves campaign (POW). Slater signed the 1,000th POW campaign postcard and today SAS will send Slater's card to the Secretary of State for Defence (SoS). SAS's 1,000 POW postcards call on the SoS to review the Ministry of Defence surfing ban at Broad Bench, one of the UK's premier waves.
Broad Bench falls on the outer boundary of a Ministry of Defence firing range and surfing can be prohibited whilst the MoD are using the range. SAS understands that... Read more
SAS are pleased to hear the European Commission (EC) has decided to take the United Kingdom to the European Court of Justice over non-compliance with EU environment legislation. SAS has spent the summer highlighting the inadequacies of the UK's sewerage system, specifically with Combine Sewage and Stormwater Overflow drains (CSOs), culminating in the hard-hitting Panorama programme "Britain's Dirty Beaches". The EC is concerned that the urban waste water collecting systems and treatment facilities in London and Whitburn in North East England and have deemed them "inadequate and a threat to human health."
SAS have highlighted time and again concerns over the... Read more
SAS campaigners starred in this weeks shocking BBC 1 Panorama programme 'Britain's Dirty Beaches'. The programme showed the nation SAS's exclusive footage of raw sewage discharging into rivers and bathing waters. This is a scene that is replicated in rivers, seas and bathing waters all over the country after heavy rain.
It was the most watched Panorama programme of the year and really hit a nerve across the country. The response we have received since Panorama aired has been fantastic, a mixture of shock at the previously hidden primitive methods of regular sewage disposal and gratitude to SAS for helping Panorama... Read more
Clean water campaigners from Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) are urging all water users to watch Panorama this Monday the 7th of September, BBC1 at 8.30pm. SAS have helped the Panorama team expose the shocking truth that after heavy rain, raw sewage is consistently discharging into our rivers, seas and bathing waters without warning to the public and water users.
SAS Campaign manager Andy Cummins features heavily in the programme and captures the most outrageous footage of a Combined Sewage and Stormwater Overflow drain (CSO) discharging raw sewage into a river. This is the first time this disgusting practice has been highlighted,... Read more
