Westminster Report - Leigh-on-Sea

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Leigh On Sea News: Westminster Report – BY David Burton-Sampson MP for Southend West & Leigh.

Westminster Report – BY David Burton-Sampson MP for Southend West & Leigh.

BY David Burton-Sampson MP for Southend West & Leigh.

WE have held our first water quality summit and what a success it was.

I was delighted to hear the pledge that there will be extra officers investigating sewage spills in our estuary in the future.

The Environment Agency said that there will be an extra 30 officers carrying out ten times the number of water quality inspections across the east, including Southend.

Bayo Alaba, MP for Southend East and Rochford and I convened the summit, that I chaired at Leigh-on-Sea Sailing Club.

We heard from Anglian Water, who said they were investing £104 million into reducing storm spills into our coastal waters and making improvements into our sewage system.

Anglian Water intends to build bigger tanks and bigger sewers and increase the capacity of the network to cope better with storm surge water.

We were also told that there are things we can do for ourselves in the here and now to help alleviate run off into the sewers. Adding a water butt to your house, for instance, or keeping some natural green space around your home can help stop reduce surface water.

We can also help by not flushing wipes and anything else that should not go down the loo and avoiding pouring fats and oils down the drain.

This summer Thorpe Bay Beach was temporarily closed and it missed out on a Blue Flag after E-coli was found. Westcliff Beach is also at risk of losing its Blue Flag. We have requested that Keep Britain Tidy attend our next meeting to give us a greater understanding of what is contributing to us maintaining or losing these Blue Flags.

We had really fruitful discussions with the water company, the Environment Agency and community groups including Southend Against Sewage. At the end of the summit a group of cold water swimmers braved the November Sea. Rather them than me!

It was an extremely constructive meeting and was I was heartened that everybody had the best interests of making sure these waters are cleaned up.

In parliament, I recently visited the Speaker’s Constituency Garden of Remembrance to place our tribute on behalf of the residents of Southend West and Leigh. This year I chose to recognise Sub. Lt. Martin Solomon. Leigh Heritage Centre have also recently unveiled a plaque to him.

Martin, who was a member of the local Jewish community, was a key figure in the organisation of small boats from Leigh and Southend for the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk in 1940. Despite being ordered not to go, he joined fellow sailors on a boat called “Defender” and played an active part in the rescue.

Over Remembrance Weekend I had the privilege of attending a wonderful concert organised by the Orpheus Singer as well as five Remembrance Services including two at St Clement’s Church. Lest We Forget.

It was a pleasure to attend Southend’s Black History Month’s celebrations at an event organised by Kultura Verse. It was a brilliant evening. It is so important to recognise Black history and the contribution it has made to this wonderful country. It’s a topic I also spoke about in Parliament outlining my own family’s mixed background. Black history is all our history!

And I boarded the Halloween Bus along Southend seafront for one of the Southend’s biggest parades. It was great to be part of the party atmosphere.

I was delighted to welcome the Minister for Sport, Stephanie Peacock, to Roots Hall, to launch the Government’s Football Governance Bill. No club should ever have to go through what Southend United have had to endure recently and I welcome the fact that this bill puts fans at its heart.

Looking forward to a great season for The Shrimpers!

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