We are in the middle of a national campaign to raise the profile of the safe use of a valuable asset in our County and City, but one that carries high risks. The coast and rivers across Sussex provide us with a range of places to visit and work in, but open water spaces can also place many lives at risk on days and nights throughout each year. A strong local advocate for Drowning Prevention Week is the recently appointed Chief Fire Officer for East Sussex Fire and Rescue, Dawn Whittaker who is the Drowning Prevention Lead for the Association of Chief Fire Officers. The need for our communities to ensure that particularly on lovely sunny days and evenings and also late at night when nightclubs are closing, that our coast and rivers remain safe is clear. Several years ago when I coordinated the Brighton Street Pastors, I was invited to discuss ways that a group of agencies could work together to achieve these outcomes. The work of the group which included a number of organisations such as the RNLI, Coastguard Agency, Police along with the Fire and Rescue and also the pier and nightclubs and Council led to a number of safety initiatives, some funded by the state and some funded by businesses. It was inspiring to be part of that group and hear about the initiatives that arose which were all designed to try to make our beaches safe late at night when tragically a number of people have died in recent years. Let us hope that the hard work by Dawn and her colleagues as part of this year’s Drowning Prevention Week which ends in a weeks time will lead to new ideas that will reduce the number of deaths on our coast and along our rivers over the next year.

Another person who works hard in the public sector is Tony Blaker, a high ranking officer in Sussex Police until June 2016 when he moved to Kent Police. Tony had served in a wide range of roles, one of his final tasks was heading up the policing of air crash at the Shoreham Airshow in 2015. Many of us who were not impacted by the crash itself became aware of the enormous amount of work that took place following the disaster as we tried to travel along the A27. In the following days many stories emerged of how hard the Police and other organisations including the private sector had worked to investigate the matter whilst at the same time providing security and support for the families impacted. In the last few days as the Court case is now underway regarding the behaviour of the pilot, the news has also emerged that Tony having served as an Assistant Chief Constable for the last two years in Kent has just been promoted to the role of Deputy Chief Constable.

A third person in the news this week who works hard on behalf of many people is Caroline Lucas. It was announced on Friday that she had finally been granted permission to visit Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre and that she had been to Bedfordshire to do so. Her request was first placed in front of the Government on the 1^st November 2016, when no doubt Caroline expected a response that might take a few weeks or even a month or so. I recall first hearing about her request in March 2018 when she reminded the Home Office of her outstanding request. This followed a visit in February of this year by Diane Abbot whose request for an opportunity to visit the detention centre was made in autumn 2016. On several further occasions Caroline reminded the Government that she was waiting for a chance to visit and so on Friday 590 days after her initial request she was allowed to do so. No doubt we will hear more from her as she reveals what she learned from the visit. This visit was made against a backdrop of campaigns and demonstrations by many people in Sussex and as well as further afield to see Yarl’s Wood closed.

All three of these people working on our behalf for our communities are people I have had the pleasure to meet and I know with absolute certainty that all three of them would be quick to acknowledge the hard work being carried out by people who work for them and people who work hard to achieve the same objectives as they do. As we wait for news of Carolines visit and the outcome of the Shoreham Court Case and the attempts to make our waterways safer, the hard work of these people is something we can be very grateful for.