Since opening SOBO Beach a community has grown around us.  We are not like other beach venues that attract tourists in summer and close for the winter.

• We have numerous groups of swimmers that use the sea day in day out, year round. We have community groups that use us, including Veterans Support Groups, SEND parents groups, Men’s Mental Health groups, Mum’s support groups, and many more.
• Winter is when we do a lot of charity fundraising, supporting Sleep Out to Help Out, the Southbourne Foodbank, the Southbourne Surf Lifesaving Club, Dorset Mind and others.
• We also have a lot of customers who use us throughout the winter as a respite from the world, or a connection to others. Individuals who can escape their problems and find peace if only for a short time at the beach.

We don’t use the word community lightly. We use it because it really matters and is a huge part of what makes SOBO Beach special. It is you the people that have shaped the way we have grown,

The council has a rare opportunity to prevent a mistake before it happens.

They could easily issue SOBO Beach with a rolling lease to stay operating, whilst the council carries out a new tender in a better timescale to allow any operator to get planning permission in place to start development, without shutting the site indefinitely.

If the site closes before planning is in place then it is a mistake that could have been avoided. Your councillor has the opportunity to vote to prevent this on 13^th October.