North Fistral, Newquays jewel in the towns water sports crown has been affected by CSO discharges.
Newquay’s town council has voted to declare a water emergency and demand Cornwall County Council, Conservative MP Steve Double and the Government hold the South West Water account for their frequent dumping of sewage into the sea and have written other company to ask them to attend a meeting to discuss fast track remedies.
The council is writing to the polluter, rated as one of the worst performing water companies in the UK, after beaches including Crantock, South Fistral, North Fistral and Porth were affected by CSO discharges this summer.
It wants a plan to deal with sewage failure implemented asap. Councillor Drew Creek put forward the motion after more than 100 members of Newquay Surf Life Saving Club were unable to complete lifesaving training due to sewage pollution.
“What South West Water are doing by continuing to dump sewage into our oceans is abhorrent and I am pleased the council will finally hold them to account. I look forward to working with our MP Steve Double and the council to ensure that South West Water stops polluting our waters.
Todays alerts
Other Cornish resort towns also affected have been St Agnes, St Ives, Bude, Falmouth, Porthleven, Pentewen (St Austell), Looe, and Sennen.
According the Safer Seas app
Fistral North has had 7 sewage alerts in 2022, and 30 alerts in 2021
Fistral South had 7 alerts in 2002 and 29 alerts in 2021
The National Trust run Crantock beach had three alerts in 2022 and 22 alerts in 2021, it is also affected by the Fistral South CSO.
Mawgan Porth had 5 alerts in 2022 and 23 alerts in 2021
Until recently water companies were only supposed discharge in exceptional circumstances, but were not held to account by the Environment Agency. The government announced a plan to deal with the problem but it effectively pushed back compliance dates and legalised CSO discharge
“This is really the big change that allows the water industry to pollute with impunity.; said SAS’s Hugo Tagholm. “I’m stoked that the data transparency we campaigned for has exposed what the industry has been doing since 1989.”
King Charles, was announced as patron of Surfers Against Sewage in Newquay.
Councillor Drew Creek said “After a recent sewage event a number of residents and I suspect, all of us as residents of Newquay will have been disappointed to see sewage flowing into the local waters and making the coastal waters around Newquay unsafe for people and wildlife.
“In fact it is well reported that South West Water, according to the Environment Agency, are one of the worst performing water companies having never in the last 12 years appeared above two out of four stars for annual performance after assessment of performance across all EPA metrics.
“The latest data on the Environment Agency website shows that South West Water has been either requiring improvement or poorly performing for the past decade. All during a time where their shareholders have pocketed huge payout to shareholders. As consumers we are forced to be a customer of South West Water, they have a monopoly on our custom and treat it with a level of contempt for the safety of the local environment and those who choose to live and use the waters around Newquay.
“As residents have no choice but to pay for the services of South West Water, it is therefore incumbent upon us as community representatives and town council to put pressure on South West Water to urgently deal with the issues of sewage discharging into local waters.”
Steve Slade a local resident said
“This is a disgrace. Members of the public are fined if their dog craps on the beach yet South West Water can dump in our seas with apparent impunity.
“Clean waters are essential for a balanced eco systems, water users and in contaminated seafood, but also the reputation of Newquay as a destination. The reputation of our town is being damaged, and we are dependent our clean seas and beaches to attract tourists and business.
“Our MP, Steve Double, was the minister for water, so is well placed to explain to the people and businesses of Newquay what processes have been put in place to stop the pollution of our seas and beaches, so the horrific spills of last summer are not repeated.”
It is hoped other Cornish town councils will also act.
Torquay-based surf brand, Rip Curl, is calling on surfers across Australia, the USA, and Europe to reduce their environmental footprint, with the expansion of Rip Curl’s ‘Recycle Your Wetsuit’ program to customers globally, in partnership with global recycling leader TerraCycle.
Rip Curl’s ‘Recycle Your Wetsuit’ program, in partnership with TerraCycle, launched in Australia in 2021, offering environmentally-conscious surfers the opportunity to recycle any surfing wetsuit at participating stores across Australia, via in-store drop off or via post.
Now, the ‘Recycle Your Wetsuit’ program is expanding beyond Australia to the USA and Europe (France, Portugal, and Spain) as of September 2022, in a global effort to reduce the impact of wetsuit waste. (RC are looking to open more European countries in the coming 6-12 months.)
To help reduce the amount of wetsuit rubber going into landfill each year, Rip Curl in partnership with TerraCycle will be repurposing all recycled rubber for use in things like the safety attenuation layer of soft fall matting used at playgrounds and outdoor gyms.
“Since the program launched, we are pleased to have seen over 1,600 Australian customers dedicating time and effort to return their surfing wetsuits for recycling. We’re proud to be able to extend this program to our US, France, Spain and Portugal customers, helping to provide them with an avenue to do their bit for the environment,” said Shasta O’Loughlin, Rip Curl’s Environmental, Social and Governance Manager.
“We hope every touchpoint has a wider impact by educating our customers to consider the end-of life impact of their purchase. We’re so stoked to be diverting wetsuits from landfill and to good use.
“We are incredibly proud of our partnership with TerraCycle, as a leader in the recycling space. With some of our core values at Rip Curl being Community and Environment, the ‘Recycle Your Wetsuit’ program is extremely important to us. We have seen a significant uptake of the program on our home soil and look forward to the response internationally,” O’Loughlin said.
“Most surfing wetsuits are made from synthetic rubber, a complex material that isn’t accepted in kerbside recycling. However, thanks to the Rip Curl ‘Recycle Your Wetsuit’ Program, Australians have saved nearly 2.5 tonnes of old wetsuits from landfills in little over a year. As a waste stream that is used all over the world, we couldn’t be more excited to work with Rip Curl to expand this initiative to even more markets,” said Jean Bailliard, General Manager of TerraCycle ANZ.
Globally, TerraCycle has recycled more than 7 billion units and raised more than $44 million for charities. The company is a social enterprise founded on the concept of Eliminating the Idea of Waste, aligning with the Rip Curl values of protecting the planet.
Established in Torquay along Victoria’s surf coast in 1969, Rip Curl has earned a reputation as one of the largest and most influential surfing companies in the world. For more information about the initiative, see the links below.
*Select Rip Curl stores will accept any surf branded wetsuit, not including booties, gloves, hoods or heavy diving dry suits. Customers can drop off their used surfing wetsuits in store at no cost. If proximity is an issue the selected stores are also accepting wetsuits via post.
How to recycle your wetsuit by mail via Rip Curl’s Recycle Your Wetsuit program:
How to recycle your wetsuit by visiting a Rip Curl store:
Drop your old surfing wetsuit off at your nearest participating Rip Curl store. You do not need to clean your wetsuit before dropping it off for recycling, however, Rip Curl Stores will not accept wet items, so please make sure your items are dry.
Rip Curl is also accepting surfing wetsuits via mail. For further information and instructions, visit:
Https://Www.ripcurl.eu/En/Company/Recycle-Your-Wetsuits.html
Submissions for 11th Edition London Surf / Film Shorties short film contest presented by Surfdome are now open.
London Surf /Film Festival is a showcase for the cream of international filmmaking, while The Shorties x Surfdome short film strand is open exclusively to filmmakers from or based in Britain and Ireland.
This year, as part of LS/FF’s on going support for homegrown talent, a £1,000 filmmaking fund will once again be awarded to the winning short, plus a £500 cash prize will accompany the emerging talent award. The Shorties submissions close: 10th October 2022.
Captured on 15/04/2022 by Toby Butler Photography.
“We established The Shorties in 2011 as a platform for homegrown creatives. This hotly contested strand is at the heart of the festival and has fast become one of the most prestigious competitions for surf filmmakers in the world. We’re delighted to be able to support The UK and Ireland’s hotbed of talent with two cash awards through our partnership with Surfdome,” says Festival Director Demi Taylor. “As always we’ll be seeking out those projects that bring a fresh perspective to our culture, whether that’s through exceptional story telling, surfing or film craft.”
Surfing is wide open to interpretation and filmmakers are invited to enter their shorts of up to 5 minutes in length, exploring any aspect and angle from documentary to animation and anything in between. It’s not about whether your waves are big or small, it’s about the way you chose to shoot them. Or don’t. After all there’s more than one way to tell a surf story. The Shorties submissions close 10th October, find more details and enter online HERE.
11th Edition London Surf / Film Festival, will be hosted 25th November – 2nd December at iconic venues across the capital, is a celebration of the cream of surf culture. Bringing to the UK a hand picked line up of the very best surf films from across the globe – documentaries to inspire, travelogues to stir up the wanderlust and cutting edge action to blow minds – all accompanied by Q+A’s, talks, workshops, icons, art, music good times and more, it is the must-attend for saltwater aficionados.
For more information head to: londonsurffilmfestival.com
