On Thursday November the 30^th, 2023 the project ‘Bridging the North Sea‘ presented its midterm report to the board of the Straits Committee. Six months after the Kick off Meeting in northern part of France the co-ordinator on behalf of the Lead Partner, Marco Simjouw and Tom Hazenberg showed the attending deputies of the regions on both side of the Canal the ongoing work on the Actionplan. Paul Cuming, archaeologist of the Kent County region prepared an source assessement on the theme of “coastal communities” as an exemple for the other region to build the Research Framework. Ludo Snijders of the province of Zeeland has the lead in the creation of the Interpretation Plan, the part of the Actionplan meant to connect to the modern coastal communities. 

The board Meeting of the Straits Committee was part of the North Sea Conference 2023. The venue for this international congres was the S.S. Rotterdam, the former flagship of the Holland America Line. 

Chair of the board of the Straits Committee Meeting was Mariëtte van Leeuwen, as deputy of province of South Holland she hosted both the Straits Committee meeting and the overall conference. She offered the coordinators of the Briding the North Sea Network the stage to present the midterm results, of a succesful Kick off Meeting, the establisment of this special network and its communication platform – including the launch of the website www.bridgingthenorthsea.org.

and the work in progress on the Actionplan. After this presentation the deputy of Departement du Nord promoted the work of the historical volunteer groups of the communities of Cassel and Bailleul concerning the execution of an archeaological survey on the Roman history of Cassel and its surroundings. Proudly she could mention the involvement of the pupils of the local secondary school. 

The gathered deputies and supporting Straits officers reacted positive on the project so far. After the meeting some Straits officers offered their help in exploring the ways of getting finance for the follow up of both the research program and public involvement by developing new project proposals in the near future. The final conference of Bridging the North Sea will take place in October 2024 in  Museumpark Archeon in Alphen aan den Rijn (NL, Province of South Holland).