Solent Protection Society

10/12/2025

A shortfall of bananas, plantains and avocados for Tesco perhaps, but the real concerns are rather wider.

The volunteer trustees of the Solent Protection Society are all too familiar with the environmental damage caused by sewage discharges from Southern Water’s combined sewer overflows. Yet, at the ea…

08/12/2025

We keep a close eye on pollution around the Solent but this is the first time we've encountered bananas and avocados washing up on the beaches in their thousands.

On a serious note, as well as twisted aluminium wreckage and a large amount of expanded polystyrene insulation material, much of this fruit remains trapped inside the heavy duty plastic bags in which they were packed for shipment.

Shipping containers lost from the Baltic Klipper near the Nab tower lighthouse, spilling cargo of bananas and avocados on Selsey beaches

04/12/2025

Just given the website home page a refresh for Christmas, adding bits of news that we didn't have space for in the glossy Members' Newsletter that was mailed out in December.

Keeping watch on Solent environmental matters for future generations

04/12/2025

Two major developments now affecting the communities on the New Forest / Dibden Bay / Southampton Waterside shoreline.

The Solent coastline is one of the most environmentally sensitive and socially diverse areas in southern England. It is home to internationally designated habitats, long-established communities, an…

09/11/2024

We take a good look at Monday's BBC South Today report and fill in some of the gaps in what was essentially a Southern Water PR exercise. The 'Toilet to Tap' 'Yuk Factor' complaint is just one facet of this. What the Company really need to explain to its customers and our members is why far greater focus has not been placed in its Water Resources Management Plan on proven, low risk, nature-based options such as managed aquifer recharge and the construction of a network of winter-storage reservoirs rather than high-risk 'toys for the boys'.

Follow the links at the bottom of this post and please do respond to the current consultation, which ends on 4 December.

Southern Water has published the latest version of its Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) to solicit feedback from the public on the company’s proposed options for future water supply. This new…

29/10/2024

ALERT! Southern Water's 2024 draft Water Resource Management Plan is open for consultation until 4 December 2024. Rather than pursuing environmentally sound and sustainable sources for future drinking water, for example winter storage reservoirs, managed aquifer recharge schemes, moving river abstraction points downstream, they remain committed to costly hi-tech, energy intensive, reverse osmosis filtering plants. Having abandoned desalination plants, SW are proposing three RO effluent recycling plants across the three counties, including new plants at Sandown WWTW, Isle of Wight, Littlehampton WWTW in West Sussex and and Havant (Budds Farm) in Hampshire. The Havant scheme alone has a current cost estimate of £1.2bn.

Details here:

An online platform for Havant Borough Residents' groups and local Havant Borough community groups to air concerns of wider interest across the borough.

04/10/2024

I think we can chalk this one up as a success. A victory for the wider Solent community over Big Oil - ExxonMobil in this case. For those who didn't have to get up at 6 or choose to listen at 7, here are the highlights:

03/10/2024

And you might have noticed that we published this image on the website yesterday, before the decision was announced!

03/10/2024

New Forest East MP Julian Lewis has been advised today (3 October 2024) that ExxonMobil is abandoning its controversial scheme to build a pipeline from Fawley Refinery across either the Isle of Wight or the New Forest carrying liquefied carbon dioxide for undersea disposal. The company has decided that, in the absence of any long-term, stable Government plan, the £5 billion investment involved is currently uncompetitive. Sir Julian commented: “This will come as a great relief to numerous constituents in the Forest and on the Island. I commend ExxonMobil both for its willingness to think again and its assurances that its valued and vital contribution to the local economy will continue, despite this reluctant but welcome change of course.”

On 4 July 2024, he was elected for the eighth time with a majority of 8,495 – the seventh-largest majority among the 121 Conservative-held seats after the 2024 General Election.

01/10/2024

SPS are delighted to be partnered with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust on this joint letter with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Isle of Wight Biosphere.

Four of the Solent's leading environmental teams working together in sharing deep concerns over ExxonMobil's 'Solent CO2 Pipeline' proposal.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, together with partners RSPB, Solent Protection Society and Isle of Wight Biosphere, have written an open letter raising significant concerns over the ecological impacts of the proposed Solent CO2 pipeline.

01/10/2024

For the SPS response to ExxonMobil, plus a few other comments, take this link.

This is clearly a subject that will be occupying the population of the Solent for some time to come. We'll be keeping you posted with our own observations over the coming months.

If you’ve been following the SPS website posts on the subject, you’ll be aware of the steep learning curve that the communities on both sides of the Solent have been climbing to get to …