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Campaign for a Clean Sussex Ouse

Cleaning up the Sussex River Ouse in Lewes, the county town of East Sussex.

 

The Campaign for a Clean Sussex Ouse aims to encourage the Environment Agency, Lewes District Council and the people of Lewes to value and take care of one of our town's most significant resources, the Sussex River Ouse.

The Sussex Ouse as it runs through Lewes has been neglected and abused for a long time, and is currently littered with all sort of rubbish and debris. The state of the stretch from Willeys Bridge to the yacht club is particularly scandalous. The river is one of the main defining characteristics of our town and it shames all Lewes residents that it is in such a bad condition.

Sussex Ouse rubbish - road signWhat we hope will be the first of many Sussex Ouse clean-up days was organised for October 10th 2009. Taking part was the organiser Mike Deacon, volunteers from the Lewes community, members of The Sussex Ouse Conservation Society (SOCS) and The Angling Trust, David Gray (Chair of Lewes Council), Edward Collict (LDC lead councillor for the environment), Normal Baker (Lewes Liberal Democrat MP) and many others.
The day was extremely successful, gaining good press coverage and with a huge amount muddy debris pulled from the river, including:

  • 28 shopping trolleys
  • 12 bikes
  • 6 scooters
  • 14 traffic cones
  • 6 car tyres
  • 1 skateboard
  • 4 large road works signs
  • several scaffolding poles
  • 1 large metal beer Keg
  • 2 full size steel football goals!
  • Lots of other miscellaneous debris

 

Sussex Ouse Cleanup - muddy shopping trolleyFollowing on from the day a letter was sent by the Campaign for a Clean Sussex Ouse to Ms Anne De Vecchi, the leader of Lewes District Council, to which (in the absence of Ms Anne De Vecchi) the Council responded. A similar letter was sent by the Salmon & Trout Association. Norman Baker (Lewes Liberal Democrat MP) also supported the action.

 

Other letters include:
18 Oct 09 - Clean Sussex Ouse Campaign letter to LDC
19 Oct 09 - Clean Sussex Ouse Campaign letter to LDC
12 Nov 09 - Paul Millmore to LDC Council Leader19 Nov 09 - LDC Letter to Clean Sussex Ouse Campaign

 

Pulling a bicycle out of the Sussex Ouse




Campaign for a Clean Sussex Ouse

Email: cleanouse@lewes.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)7751 137057

    

Latest News

06th September 2010
The next Clean Ouse day organised for Monday 13 September has been cancelled. There will be another aranged very soon. Watch this space.
For more info contact Mike Deacon on 0775 1137 057 or email cleanouse@lewes.co.uk

17th May 2010
The last Ouse clean-up took place on the 15th May from Eastgate car Park behind Waitrose. The morning went well  with a good skips worth of trolleys pulled out of the Lewes Ouse during the 3.5 hours we were able to access the river at low tide. There's obviously a lot more trolleys still in there, most of them bunched up and lodged in holes in the river bed. The majority of the trolleys we dragged out appeared to be old Safeway ones but a number were the more modern Waitrose trolleys.

Tescos provided us with lashings of sandwiches and Red Bull and even a first aid officer. A barrel of beer was very gratefully received from Harveys and the skip was provided for free by the excellent and highly recommended Sussex Skips. Thanks very much to all three of you.

Check back here for news of the next Clean Ouse Day

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The Clean Ouse days are great fun and so far have achieved the following:

Tescos have now adapted their trolleys so they can't be wheeled out of their carpark

Lewes District Council are imposing fines on the supermarkets whenever their trolleys are found abandoned around the town

Waitrose: For now have not taken any measures to adapt their trolleys. They appear content to have users wheel them home and leave them lying around the town for people to smash up or throw in the river. However, Waitrose now do get fined by Lewes District Council whenever this happens!

So, well done Tescos and LDC!

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If you'd like to take part in any future Clean Sussex Ouse days or just keep up with the Campaign for a Clean Sussex Ouse news and events please subscribe to our mailing list:

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Sussex Ouse Rubbish

The Campaign for a Clean Sussex Ouse would like to thank the following organisations and individuals for their help and support on the day and for supporting the organisation in general: