Sons of Neptune - "nobody knew I was arrested"
A group of middle-aged swimming friends from Scarborough were worried about sewage in the sea in the 1980s. They took on the government. And now they're heading for the big screen
They've been vilified, arrested and denounced over their long campaign to stop sewage being dumped into the sea - and now the story of a group of swimmers from Scarborough is set to hit the big screen. The group, known as the Sons of Neptune, fought a furious battle to clean up their local waterways in the 1980s and 90s. It's a familiar story of British eccentrics and a battle against the authorities, but also a tale of how high-minded idealism can affect peoples' lives in all sorts of ways. There are still people in the North Yorkshire town who can't forgive them.
They were, at the beginning, merely a collection of enthusiastic and slightly eccentric sea swimmers. But everything changed when Yorkshire Water revealed plans to "improve" water quality by building a long sea sewage outfall pipe in Scarborough's North Bay. These days, the five remaining members of this group of environmental protesters are all in their 80s, but are as talkative as they were 30 years ago when they started causing outrage in their home town with their long war over a sewage pipe. For 5 Minutes On, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's Arts Correspondent, David Sillito, has been to meet them.
Image credit: Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News
