West Norfolk coastline runner starts next stage

A coastline runner will be starting the next stage of his run this weekend bring awareness to prevent plastic pollution in the sea.

At mid day on Saturday, Luke Douglas-Home will start his run and swim around the West Norfolk coastline to raise awareness of plastic pollution and the need for climate and ecological action.

He started at Great Yarmouth near the end of last year and this stage he’ll start from Burnham Overy Staithe and run approximately 13 miles to Hunstanton, expecting to arrive at 4pm.

Here he hopes to meet the mayor of the town, Adrian Winningto,n before going on to Lynn, collecting plastic shoreline rubbish and raising awareness along the way.

Local residents are encouraged to come along and support him and attendees can also take part in a two minute creek clean where they will be given a One Bag Zero Waste bag to prevent plastic from entering the sea.

Overy Staithe’s Norfolk Coffee Pedlar, a new sustainable, local coffee cart will also be serving up serve up warm drinks.

At Burnham Overy Staithe jetty, Luke will be given a send off by members of the local parish council and supportive local residents.

Luke is a chartered environmentalist and is restarting the mission to stop a ton of plastic from going into the seas around Britain, preventing ocean plastic.

The father of two, embarked on a personal undertaking to run the coastline of England in November last year, starting in Great Yarmouth, but was blighted by injury.

Now recovered, he is embarking on the next legs of his journey along the Norfolk coast which he hopes to complete by May 7.

He said: "The average Briton throws away almost 100 kgs of plastic every year and every minute one truckload of plastic waste enters the sea. This must stop.

"Plastics last in the environment for centuries. No-one has ever done this journey before as far as I know, so I’m embarking on a unique challenge.

"It will hopefully see me complete an equivalent half marathon distance, crossing four channels, so I’ll be swimming and running to keep to the shoreline.

"I’m not even sure it is possible, but preventing ocean plastic is a cause worth raising awareness about and would invite anyone to come along to support on the day or in any way they can.

"We’ll start with a two minute beach clean adapted to the creek."

Mr Winnington said: "Hunstanton Town Council is extremely concerned about the amount of litter, especially plastic, ending up in our seas and we wish Luke well and hope that he inspires all those he meets on his journey around our coast to take action to reduce plastic waste.

"If we all used just one bag and one bottle there would be a significant decrease in the amount of waste plastic in our environment."

Wayne Visser, author and a fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership said: "When despair is on the rise, it helps to take positive action. Coastline runner, Luke Douglas-Home, shows that we don't have to wait for others before we make a difference."