Your Coastline Needs You!

Clean water campaigners Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) re-enacted the iconic Kitchener recruitment poster to enlist surfers, waveriders and coastal users into the Marine Management Organisation’s (MMO) new marine planning programme. Our surfing Kitchener stood on the frontline for SAS at the first Marine Planning workshop on the 12th of January in Peterborough.

The workshops will produce a statement of public participation (SPP), outlining exactly how and when surfers, waveriders and coastal users can best engage with the Marine Planning process. Once the mechanisms and methods for engagement are in place SAS will be recruiting the entire coastal community at the key stages throughout the consultation period. The MMO’s Marine Planning programme is the key platform and the best opportunity for all water sports enthusiasts to ensure their favoured coastal environments are officially recognized and protected, and sports fully acknowledged.

The first 2 regions opened up for marine planning are on the East Coast. The first region stretches from Flamborough Head to Felixstowe, and the second is offshore from the same coastline. The entire UK coastline will eventually be subject to marine planning. SAS’s involvement with the development of the process will allow important stretches of our coast to become designated for the benefit of the water sports community. But it is vital that once the mechanisms and methodology are in place, the whole water sports community grasps this opportunity to participate and make their voice count. Offshore energy companies, industry, the Ministry of Defence and Government will all be laying claim to the parts of the sea that are important to them.

The Marine Planning programme will identify and record users of the sea and where their activities take place around the UK. This information should then be used to ensure a more sustainable and balanced use of the marine environment. DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) describes the Marine Planning process as; “strategic, forward-looking planning for regulating, managing and protecting the marine environment, including through allocation of space, that addresses the multiple, cumulative, and potentially conflicting uses of the sea”