It was great to leave a busy week in Westminster and head back to a very sunny Eastbourne last Friday and into a positive meeting with the Environment Agency.
The talk centred around our sea water quality and the news the water off our coast is rated as good. However, in even better news, I was told we are “flirting” with becoming excellent in what would be a further boost for our tourism and hospitality industries.
Water quality is a serious issue and there is serious investment underway to reduce overflow in our town. Government money through DEFRA is funding a project with East Sussex County Council to reduce surface water runoff.
Tourists visiting Eastbourne, and our residents too, need to have confidence to go to the beach, enjoy the seafront and bathe in clean waters.
Another big subject of the meeting was about the very exciting coastal defence project from Eastbourne to Pevensey Bay that could total £100 million and protect 10,000 homes.
You may have noticed boreholes along the prom. There will be 21 and they are being used to gather data on chalk, water level and soil strata to help formulate this project – due to run for decades to come. In fact, this is the largest proposed coastal defence project in the country.
We also discussed a range of topics including restoring kelp forests off the coast, offshore farming and fisheries.
In further news, DEFRA Secretary George Eustice, who is ultimately to sign the flood defence project off, will be visiting Eastbourne soon after he accepted my invitation.
I met with the Chief Executive and Chair of the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust on Tuesday to discuss a range of health issues.
The number of covid patients was mentioned and the trust is managing well with currently 60 patients in both DGH and Conquest against 450 a year ago.
One of the biggest challenges going forward is working through the backlog of patients needing treatment and I was pleased to hear the trust had not stopped elective treatment to deal with the omicron wave.
The trust is also for additional government money to substantially increase treatments post-pandemic. Recovering from the pandemic was a key question from East Sussex College students when I met them virtually this week.
This week (Thursday) is International Holocaust Remembrance Day where the world remembers all those who were murdered by the Nazi regime and looks to educate the world about its horror.
The date was chosen to mark the date that Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by Soviet forces in 1945.
We have our own holocaust survivor in Eastbourne. Dorit Oliver-Woolf who has been a tireless campaigner to educate today’s generation about what happened to Jews and others in those dark times. On this day, I always think of her and her selfless work.
Sadly, as we commemorate one episode of violence, we face real concern over tensions between the Ukraine and Russia. The Government has sent anti-tank missiles and troops to help train local forces on them. We stand firm with NATO over Russian aggression but I hope a diplomatic solution can be found before there is bloodshed.
