Last summer I photographed on the beautiful north Kent beaches of Tankerton and Whitstable.

Last week I learnt that Southern Water regularly releases untreated sewage onto these beautiful beaches as reported in the documentary Our Troubled Rivers. Self-regulated dumping by water companies, together with storm runoff from livestock farms, means beaches and designated bathing waters are often closed, and disgracefully all our rivers are now polluted.

To right this desperate situation and put a stop to profiteering and abuse of our vital natural resource, the activist group SOSWhitstable are urgently petitioning the government to bring the care of our water back into public ownership.

Similarly Surfers Against Sewage ask us to sign their Dirty Money petition. Both groups hope that with re-reinvestment and upgrades the water industry will have the resources to nurse our ailing natural environment back to good health.

Horrible fact that in 2021 alone, water companies released effluence into English and Welsh waterways amounting to 25 years of untreated sewage.

Meanwhile my thanks to the kind and generous people of Tankerton and Whitstable, The Marine Hotel, and this super team :

talent – Eveline Besters at Models1 (drove all the way from her home in Amsterdam to avoid flight cancellations), fashion editor – Jo Atkinson at Hearst assisted by Corin Ripley, hair & makeup artist – Frances Prescott at S.Management, clothes transport – Michelle Bohan, producer – Fiona Andrews at Hearst, digital operator – Julie Stewart, lighting assistant and all the wonderful behind-the-scenes photography – Alicia Joynes. Fashion photography by me Wendy Carrig