news release
    31st October 2003

At the European Parliament, updating the Bathing Water Directive was going to be done by MEPs from all over Europe for the first time in over 25 years. SAS decided the last thing they should see was our hitsquad giving them our message that change for the better is needed now! Surfers, windsurfers, bodyboarders, sailors, divers and other recreational water users need to be protected by this directive, but firstly they need to be recognized by the directive.

Early Sunday morning a SAS Hitsquad packed up their vehicle and set off to deliver our message in a bottle. Armed with 150 bottles, a giant inflatable turd, some boards and 2 great volunteers Richard and Andy set off.

The first stop was the 'lovely' town of Dover, where we found out that Charlotte, one of our volunteers, suffers from sea sickness and the forecast was for 30mph Northerly winds for our crossing. We all left the ferry with the contents of our stomachs in tact, and after some invigorating fresh air intervals the race to Strasbourg began.

Once in France we had a strict deadline to meet, as we had passes to the European Parliament to sit in on a debate about the Bathing Water Directive and another about the ghost fleet that is threatening the North East. Our progress was going great, speeding a long the empty toll rolls with ex carting demon Andy behind the wheel. After a short stop to change CDs disaster struck, we had left a bag of 50 plastic bottles with messages at the rest stop. Getting off at the next toll exit (30 minutes up the road) we turned around and went back for them, only to find that the most efficient waste disposal man on Earth was working this stretch of motor way. After chasing him up the motorway for several miles we tracked down the bottles.

We finally made it to Strasbourg in time for the debate. What was coming across wasn't great. A number of MEPs were stressing that any changes to the directive was not in their favor, unfortunately a number of the negative voices came from MEPs from the UK. It was not going to be plain sailing to get any change. After the debate we headed to our hotel room and set about repairing the 'lost' bottles.

Early the next we found a place to park near the European Parliament and started the set up. Nobody was in a huge rush to get out of their warm clothes and a wetsuit in the near freezing temperatures but we all did. Inflating our turd, putting on our gas masks and grabbing our bottles with messages we headed to parliament.

We set up right outside the entrance and had lots of attention from the French police as well as the MEPs passing on their way to vote on the Directive. We handed out our message to as many MEPs as we could and received great support from the media.

Green MEPs Caroline Lucas and Jan Dhaene and the Southwest's MEP were very impressed with the demonstration and very interested in what we had to say.

The girls, Sophie and Charlotte were fantastic at distracting the French police attention as Richard and Andy jumped into the river Ill to paddle the turd right up to the European Parliament building, reinforcing the message that surfers and other recreational water users need clean seas.

The situation was starting to look a lot more positive compared to the previous nights debate and the results of the vote proved to be a great victory for SAS and a great result for all recreational water users. SAS can reveal that MEP's voted in favor of recreational water users such as surfers and windsurfers receiving protection under the new revised Bathing Water Directive. SAS are still calling on MEP's to ensure that the revised Bathing Water Directive acknowledges that its not just 'swimmers', but all types of recreational water users that need protecting from sewage polluted water, that water quality standards need to be made tougher and that communication of water quality information to the public needs to be improved. It is not over and done with, as they say, we have won the battle, not the war. We recognize that MEP's were in no way united in their views. We've got our work cut out to make sure that the good work done here isn't undone in future sessions. This vote was the first of two votes the European Parliament will make on this directive. The 15 Environment Ministers will also consider the contents of the directive and between them will develop a common position.

We intend to maintain the pressure to ensure that the progressive steps made here are not reversed when either the Council of Ministers or the European Parliament further work on the directive. The next step for SAS is producing a document outlining what we want and why it is important for everyone then sending it to UK and European MPs before the key vote in December in Brussels. Then a demo in Brussels outside the next meeting of the European Council. What can you do to help? Contact local MEPs and tell them that the improvements are important to you and remind them they represent you and your views. If you are not a member, join SAS today. Your membership fee will help fund the ongoing campaigns and allow you to join in some great events, and/or volunteer you time for help with events. On that note everyone at SAS would like to thank Sophie and Charlotte for their help at Strasbourg, as you can see below, we worked them hard!!

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