#18: Bridges Not Borders; Rethinking Sussex's Link To The World

The Sussex And The City Podcast

– Episode 19:

Bridges Not Borders; Rethinking Sussex's Link To The World

Host: Richard Freeman
Guest: Graham Precey – social impact leader (ex-Head of Sustainability, Legal & General); community convenor for the Newhaven–Dieppe ("Le Havre de Paix") ferry decarbonisation effort; Normandy–Sussex bridge-builder

---

🔍 Episode summary

Richard speaks with Graham Precey from across the Channel in Normandy to unpack why the Newhaven–Dieppe ferry is more than a boat: but a living bridge between Sussex and Normandy that carries tourists, freight, ideas and identity — and a testbed for decarbonising short-sea shipping.

Graham traces a career in corporate social and environmental impact long before 'ESG' was a buzzword, and explains how that experience now fuels a community-led, binational mission: cutting ~41,000 tonnes of CO₂ from the route, protecting a 200-year lifeline, and turning Sussex's "over-the-horizon" into an everyday, low-carbon local journey.

This is a practical conversation about infrastructure that people can see and use — ferries, ports, pallets and power — and how open, ego-free convening is bringing councils, operators, businesses and residents together to solve a problem that matters.

---

🎯 Why this matters

"It's a bridge. 368,000 people and a whole lot of pallets cross it each year. It's real economy, not just the cloud — and right now about 41,000 tonnes of carbon go straight up the funnel. We need to change that, and we are." 

"If I were the Sussex mayor, I'd start with the real assets: Gatwick, Shoreham, Newhaven. They bring in people and trade you can count. Then ask: how do we make them work together — and cleaner — fast?" 

---

🧠 Topics covered include:

• The ferry as a 200-year "living bridge": culture, tourism, trade and identity

• Why short-sea decarbonisation (electric, hybrid, hydrogen, fuels) is urgent and doable

• Who pays (and why): the Normandy case for investment, carbon pricing pressures, fleet renewal

• Sussex's three strategic gateways — Gatwick, Shoreham, Newhaven — and treating them as a system

• Open Space convening: dropping egos, myth-busting, and co-creating the agenda in public

• Practical wins: letters of support from Sussex bodies, technical working groups, Franco-British dialogue

• Making the route busier and fairer: pricing, signage, language, and lowering friction on both shores

• Devolution takeaway: how a mission-led mayoral programme could scale this approach to other regional challenges

---

📚 Further reading and references

• Newhaven–Dieppe Ferry (DFDS/Transmanche) – timetables, route and operator info
  👉 https://www.dfds.com/en/passenger-ferries/ferry-routes/ferries-to-france/newhaven-dieppe

• Port of Newhaven – port i