Having grown up in Newhaven, Graham Precey has always had a close affinity with the town (even after relocating across the Channel). From launching the Newhaven Regeneration Group to his work on improving and decarbonising the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry link, Graham is passionate about supporting growth in our town. We caught up with him to find out more.
Tell us about your working background and how you reconnected with Newhaven.
I was head of Sustainability at Legal & General Group for ten years and left as I was getting pulled more into helping Sussex-based businesses to be innovative and grow.
I went to Tideway school in Newhaven with Mark Beaumont, who runs Lanoguard. I bumped into him at a community event and we talked about what we could do to help Newhaven thrive. The first thing we did was found the Newhaven Gig Rowing Club in 2016. We thought, why is no-one using this river for pleasure? We hatched a crazy plan to hire a Cornish gig – neither of us knew how to row! We had great fun building the club from scratch and it created a buzz. The purpose was to show things could change, born out of an entrepreneurial spirit. Today it has morphed into something even better – many more clubs and rowers now use the river and Seaford Bay for pleasure.
Can you tell us about the Newhaven Regeneration Group and its successes?
Mark and I set up the Newhaven Regeneration Group as a mechanism to invest in projects to have a positive impact. We worked with a local film producer, Warren Dudley, to create a comedy series called “Seaside Town“, which is on Amazon Prime. The idea was to show Newhaven as a place where films can be made – many local people were involved and it was entirely made in Newhaven.
We ran a ‘start-up cruise’ before the Brexit deal with British and French entrepreneurs, gathering them on a ferry to talk about how business was going to continue, regardless of politics. A lot of our work has been about creating projects to connect Newhaven and Dieppe, making the best of the resources we have.
Tell us about your role as volunteer ambassador for Region Normandie, implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. What does this involve?
Money and social/environmental impact don’t always gel, so my role is to carve out solutions. I was the only Brit selected for the role, due to my work on how to sustain the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry link for future generations.
My dream is to have the ferry busier than ever, with more freight and foot passengers – without creating 43,000 tonnes of C02 in the process.
How popular is the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry route (and vice versa)? How could it be improved?
340,000 passengers use the ferry every year, which is amazing – the numbers are higher than before Covid. But if you talk to people in Sussex about where they go on holiday from, they’ll probably say Gatwick. Europe is much closer than that. Airports are hassle!
More people are discovering the Newhaven ferry is the shortest route between London and Paris, and it’s affordable. This June we’re holding a conference in Newhaven with our French cousins to explore how we can make the line busier.
80% of people using the ferry are British. To get more French tourists into Sussex on the ferry, we need to understand French tourism better. In France people like to have travel organised for them in groups as a package. The UK is 20% more expensive than France and the language barrier is still an issue. Having French signs in Newhaven for example does make a difference.
On the business side, how many in Sussex know they can ask their logistics supplier for their product to be transported on their local ferry service? It’s a conscious choice to buy local. Dieppe is local to Sussex – it’s closer than London!
Can you tell us about the green shipping corridor?
A Green Shipping Corridor was a commitment from many countries including the UK and France as part of the Climate Change Negotiations (COP) to connect international ports together with low carbon transport. That’s what Newhaven to Dieppe needs to benefit from.
In Dover they’ve ordered six electric ferries to be in place by 2030. There’s a great organisation called SailLink which has a catamaran sailing between Boulogne and Dover every day, carrying foot passenger and cyclists. Brittany Ferries has brought in hybrid ferries further down the coast.
Last year a new initiative launched to transport the first pallets between Newhaven and Le Tréport in Normandy on a tall ship, emitting zero carbon. People love to see a tall ship – it’s the spirit of freedom and movement.
How would you describe Newhaven? Tell us what you love about the town.
Timeless yet innovative – a great mix. Newhaven has an increasing number of people discovering it from Brighton and this is having a positive impact, with new businesses popping up.
Mamoosh is my favourite place as you can wander straight out of the ferry terminal and grab a coffee. The river Ouse is amazing and has been ebbing and flowing for centuries.
What do you think makes Newhaven a great place to base a business?
It’s got the space, which is rare, and good transport connections: buses, trains and a ferry to Europe (although traffic has always been a problem).
Whereas Brighton is a digital hub, Newhaven is a place where real stuff is made and transported: boats with timber and fish. There’s lots of space to innovate in Newhaven.
What would you like Newhaven’s future to look like in 10 years’ time?
I’d like to see Newhaven as the place where the 1.7 million people in Sussex go to take a mini break from. It’s an easy, relaxing journey across the Channel, you can be in Europe quickly and enjoy some French culture – without having the environmental impact that flying has.
What would you like Newhaven Enterprise Zone to spend its funding on in the town?
There’s been a lot of brilliant work by Newhaven Enterprise Zone to bring businesses into Newhaven. For me the next step is to help them do business with Europe, right on their doorstep. I’d like to see some more direct action between Sussex and Normandy, like a trade fair. Why not get businesses on the ferry together? There’s lots of ways of reducing the language barrier and helping people connect.
Read more Q&As in our Faces of Newhaven series here.
