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SOS Bulletin August 2007
- Supporters now number well over 10% of Selsey’s population;
- We endorsed 5 candidates in the May District Council elections, 2 of them were elected (THANK YOU, all who gave their support);
- Your support also means we’ve got “key partner” status with the Environment Agency (great, if the Agency are genuine about it);
- We’ve developed links with local schools and young people;
- We’ve developed links with other UK coastal campaigners;
- We’ve been featured in the local and regional press, on TV and on local and Southern Region radio.
- We’re busy doing research, making contacts, networking, finding allies & lobbying, to secure a future for our community.
- Our website (www.saveourselsey.org) will be updated soon.
We took part in Sea Selsey, the Seal School summer fete, and RNLI Launch Day, where many people registered as supporters. Remember, all members of families may fill in a registration slip. If a young person understands the issues, they have a right to register their support, too.
You can register online (www.saveourselsey.org) or at one of our registration boxes (at Selsey Town Hall reception, and “In Stitches” 89 High Street). It doesn’t cost you anything. We can’t stress just how useful this is, and what doors your support has opened for us!
Two of the five independent candidates we endorsed for District Council were elected. SOS is not a political party, so did not help fund their campaign – they all paid their own electoral expenses.
During the election a major political party used our name, claiming it was in a “united front” with us. We couldn’t print our Chairman’s response until after the election. Here is part of it:
We believe that coast defence should not be a party political issue, and we will work with whoever we need to, in order to get it. However, to claim this means we are in a "united front", after dismissing most of our demands, is stretching the point.
We are negotiating with the Environment Agency as to exactly what our “key partner” status in the consultation process means. We have explained that we want to participate, but have warned them that:
“The community has put great trust and hope in SOS. If our involvement in the process is limited to strictly controlled contact … through Community Engagement Officers & the like, this is unlikely to meet our supporters’ reasonable expectations”.
We gave a talk about SOS at the Manhood Community College, where students had been studying SOS in their citizenship course. This culminated with the Lower School writing nearly 400 letters to the District Council, voicing their concerns about coast defence and the need to defend our community. We ensured the letters were formally handed to the Council. We hope to work with the young people and Community College in the future.
In early June the Year 7 students told us they had organised a charity disco on behalf of SOS and CLICK (a children’s leukaemia charity). We attended the event, which raised a substantial sum of money, to the great credit of the young people involved. If anyone’s “Community Champions”, it’s them! Thank you again!
We did a talk at Seal School, where the children had been studying the coast defence issue, and for Sidlesham Primary school we organised a tour of Selsey’s coast defences. Both schools did some excellent posters, which we now use on our display stand.
Will the damaged West Beach sea wall be repaired, and will Bunn Leisure be allowed to defend its seafront? We are lobbying on both counts. Look out for announcements in the local press.
If you want to get involved, then contact us via the website, www.saveourselsey.org, the registration boxes, or via our stand (we’ll be at the Carnival on Saturday 25th August).
You can help out with delivering leaflets, manning the stand, doing research (if you have internet access) and in many other ways.
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