National Coastwatch charity to launch in resort

Ian Whalley MBE, deputy chairman of National Coastwatch, is station manager at Skegness

The National Coastwatch service is planning to set up a station in a Lincolnshire seaside town.

The charity that works closely with the coastguard and Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to spot signs of trouble is launching a site in Cleethorpes.

The Cleethorpes base will be the fourth station on the Lincolnshire coast. Others include Chapel Point, Mablethorpe and Skegness.

Ian Whalley MBE, deputy chairman of National Coastwatch, said: "It's a very popular and growing holiday resort with a very high footfall and we have evidence from the coastguard that there is a lot going on. It's an acknowledged dangerous shoreline."

The Cleethorpes base will be the fourth station on the Lincolnshire coast

"We spot things. People stuck in the mud. People on different parts of their holiday thinking that everything's fine then suddenly they find themselves in a sandbank."

National Coastwatch had started the process of launching the Cleethorpes station and had hosted a public meeting which was "well attended," Mr Whalley said.

"What we've decided to do is to be proactive and we've started training new recruits before we've actually got the station in place."

The aim is for the Cleethorpes station to be open for business by Easter next year.

HM Coastguard were called to reports of a stranded 4x4 and two water scooters in Cleethorpes in July.

An exhausted deer was also rescued from the beach earlier this year.

In the past two years, nearly nine out of 10 incidents reported to the coastguard by National Coastwatch resulted in the deployment of a lifeboat.

In the last year, 338 people were pulled out of the water as a result of that intervention.

'Protection of life'

Thwe National Coastwatch charity, which was set up in Cornwall in 1994, is run by volunteers and has 60 stations, with 2,815 fully-trained volunteer watchkeepers all reporting to HM Coastguard.

"It's dedicated to the preservation and protection of life at sea and around the coastline, looking for trouble and calling in the assets," Mr Whalley said.

"We use radios, we use automatic ship recognition, very high powered binoculars and radar all to pick up where the issues are."

The charity is looking to recruit more volunteers for its Cleethorpes station over the coming months.

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