After the usual team effort by the SPS Council members, the editor has finished wielding his blue pencil, the final copy has arrived back from the printer, a large number of stamps and address labels have been applied by our secretary and the latest glossy Solent Protection Society Newsletter has been put in the safe … Continue reading The SPS Autumn 2021 Newsletter is here!

The iconic landmark at Calshot is due to be demolished in a single controlled event on Sunday October 31st. "For more than 50 years it has dominated the local skyline – but at the end of the month the iconic Fawley power station chimney will be blown up. Demolition company Brown and Mason have been … Continue reading Calshot Chimney demolition date set for October 31st

In the 2021 March budget, the Solent was shortlisted as the potential site for one of eight Freeports to be set up in the United Kingdom.  The Government’s Freeport ‘Bid Prospectus’ set out the overall scale of a Freeport and demonstrated how the maximum ‘outer boundary’, a 45Km circle, could fit with the geography of … Continue reading The Solent Freeport puts our focus back on Dibden Bay

August 2021 In June we posted an article on the much improved Southern Water Beachbuoy realtime monitoring of spills into the seas around our coast. The data is limited to which spills might affect bathing water beaches as this comes under more stringent legislation.. During May and June we logged all the spills into the … Continue reading Solent Combined Sewage Outfall (CSO) spills

Until recently, Southern Water's Beachbuoy web page has been a simple facility, limited to just a few sites and arguably simply a PR exercise given the criticism frequently levelled at the company. Over the past few weeks however, we have been pleased to see that the basic function of the original page has been replaced … Continue reading Southern Water’s ‘Beachbuoy’ spill monitoring

The Solent Protection Society pollution group has made a detailed study over the past six months of the main issues that affect the environment of the Solent. Using Environment Agency data and the output from a series of questions raised with Southern Water under 'Environmental Information Requests', the group has been building a data picture … Continue reading SPS Position on pollution

(This is a 'working document' which will be updated as more detail becomes clear) In the last budget, the Solent was shortlisted as the site for one of ten Freeports to be set up in the United Kingdom. Since that time, we've seen little or no detail in the public domain regarding what the Freeport … Continue reading What might the ‘Solent Freeport’ mean for the Solent area?

STOP PRESS! Bowing to pressure from multiple local campaigns, including representations from Solent Protection Society, Southern Water have issued a statement indicating that "water recycling and water transfers are now seen as preferable to desalination". September 30 2021 Our earlier article, below, looked at the Ashlett Creek proposal and put our case against it: Southern … Continue reading SPS Position on Fawley desalination plant

The Solent Freeport bid was submitted by Solent Local Enterprise Partnership based on a coalition of businesses, associated local authorities and other partners. In today's budget announcement, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak announced that Solent has been selected as one of the eight UK sites for which Freeport's will now be developed. This report from the … Continue reading Solent Freeport bid shortlisted in the Chancellor’s Budget announcement

What do we do with the reports on Marine Licence Applications which we publish every month on this website? Every month our council considers these applications and decides whether SPS should respond to the consultation invitation. Often, of course, there is no need for SPS to get involved but sometimes we respond, usually with requests … Continue reading Actions from our Marine Licence Application updates