Campaign group SOS Whitstable says actor Danny Dyer, television personality Dani Dyer and singer Becky Hill will join a protest on the Isle of Sheppey calling for the water industry to be returned to public ownership.

A protest calling for water to be taken back into public ownership will be held at Leysdown-on-Sea later this month, its organisers have announced.

“Stop the Sewage” is due to begin at 11am on Sunday 20 September 2026 at The Garden Cafe on Shellness Road, Leysdown-on-Sea, Sheerness, ME12 4RH. It is organised by the campaign group SOS Whitstable, which says members of the public are welcome and encourages them to bring placards.

Who the organisers say will be there

SOS Whitstable says the actor Danny Dyer, the television personality Dani Dyer and the singer Becky Hill will join the protest, alongside the GMB activist Cliff Roney and Ash Smith of the campaign group Windrush WASP. Those attendances are as announced by the organisers; Kent Local News has not independently confirmed who will be present on the day.

The petition behind the protest

The protest is being held in support of a petition started by SOS Whitstable co-founder Ed Acteson, “Return the Water Industry to Public Ownership”, hosted on Change.org. It had 316,374 signatures when Kent Local News checked it on 12 September 2026, making it one of the larger campaigns of its kind in the UK.

What the campaigners say

Ed Acteson said: “The public has had enough of being asked to accept polluted waterways, failing infrastructure and rising bills while shareholders and senior executives continue to be rewarded. Water is an essential public service, not a vehicle for private profit.”

Cliff Roney, a GMB activist who has worked in the water industry for more than 40 years, said: “I have seen this industry at its very best and now at its very worst. Infrastructure is falling to pieces, there has been a lack of maintenance and investment, no reservoirs are being built, and staff are on their knees trying to keep the system running.”

The campaigners’ case is directed at the privatised water industry as a whole rather than at any one company operating in Kent.

Key information

  • Stop the Sewage protest, 11am, Sunday 20 September 2026
  • The Garden Cafe, Shellness Road, Leysdown-on-Sea, Sheerness, ME12 4RH
  • Organised by SOS Whitstable; open to the public, placards encouraged
  • Petition: “Return the Water Industry to Public Ownership” on Change.org, 316,374 signatures as at 12 September 2026

Top image: Shellness Road, Leysdown-on-Sea, the road on which the protest will gather. Photo: Richard Rogerson / Geograph, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Sources