Commemorating the El-Khawas family
It has been an incredibly sad week for our community, with four members of the same family passing away after getting into serious difficulty in the sea near Shoreham Fort. My thoughts are with the family and friends of Hassan El-Khawas, Zeina Alayn, Sara El-Khawas, and Saja El-Khawas.
Over the weekend, our community came together to commemorate the family at a service at St Julian’s Church. We also paid our respects at a minute’s silence in the town centre to remember the family and the 11 men who lost their lives in the Shoreham Air Show disaster 11 years ago.
Thank you to our emergency services, including Sussex Police, South East Coast Ambulance Service, HM Coastguard, Shoreham RNLI, NCI Shoreham and Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex, who responded swiftly to the incident and worked tirelessly in exceptionally difficult circumstances. Their work is invaluable and so appreciated by all of us living in Shoreham. I will be looking at how we can improve water safety knowledge for everyone across the country to prevent as many drowning deaths as we can.
The police are still investigating this tragic incident. Please call 101 or contact them online, quoting Operation North, if you have any further information or video footage that could assist their inquiry.
Nationally, I was pleased to see the Prime Minister announce that people with a disabled bus pass will now be able to access unlimited free bus travel all day, every day.
We also announced we are giving local mayors and councils stronger powers to crack down on criminal gangs and illegal waste sites.
To support farmers through this drought and safeguard our food supply, we are providing an additional £65million, which will also help them prepare for the summers ahead.