Tomorrow the Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) 12-day UK road trip in a bespoke double-decker bus to take the sewage debate to election hotspots will complete its journey in the SAS hometown of St. Agnes in Cornwall.

As well as attending hustings events, SAS’s team of campaigners has taken detours along the way to the headquarters of five major water companies - Northumbrian Water, United Utilities, Severn Trent Water, Thames Water and South West Water - delivering letters demanding CEOs clean up their act.

The road trip is designed to galvanise communities across the country to demand election candidates end sewage pollution.

SAS said the Election Road Trip was aimed at highlighting “the dire state of our rivers and seas” as a key issue for voters at the general election in July.

The Election Road Trip has taken the sewage debate to political, sewage and surfing hotspots, with all candidates invited to answer questions from locals at a series of hustings events. The tour began with a demonstration at Windermere alongside local campaigner Matt Staniek, followed by hustings in locations from Edinburgh in Scotland to St Agnes in Cornwall.

According to the campaigning organisation, the eight destinations on the route - home to impassioned communities with a track record of campaigning on sewage pollution - are also politically important seats that are likely to be hotly contested on 4 July. These include the key swing seats of Gower and Hastings and Rye, and the ‘red wall’ constituency of Redcar. There is also a stop reserved on the banks of the River Swale, in the constituency of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

SAS CEO - "election is a pivotal moment in the fight to end sewage pollution"

Giles Bristow, CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, said:

“We are hitting the road, wetsuits, and surfboards in tow, to raise a stink about the sewage scandal in major election battlegrounds across the UK. This election is a pivotal moment in the fight to end sewage pollution and we're determined to grasp it with both hands.

“We've been on the front line fighting against sewage pollution for more than 30 years and so we know how to sniff out flash-in-the-pan pledges from insincere vote-seeking candidates. 

“This is a national issue that is firing up a real sense of fury and outrage in communities - a true thread that links voters up and down the country and across the political spectrum. We’re mobilising our SAS party bus to show election candidates that if tackling sewage pollution isn’t top of their to do list, their campaign needs a major rethink - fast.”

The SAS Election Road Trip will be visiting its final destination tomorrow afternoon from 2pm to 4pm in the village of St Agnes on the north Cornish coast.