Lifeboat facingvolunteer crisis

The lifeboat has launched an appeal to find volunteer crew members as well as on-shore volunteers and people to help in the shop and with fund-raising.

Steve Tollett, from the lifeboat, said: “It has been increasingly hard to find volunteers but we are rock-bottom now.”

Problems have been caused by a combination of long-serving crew-members reaching their age limit and younger members moving away.

Steve said: “We had one girl move down to Devon and a number of the younger volunteers have gone on to university.”

He added: “Many people work a six or seven day week these days so time for volunteering is limited.”

To help share more information about what volunteering involves, two sessions are taking place at the lifeboat station on Sunday and Monday where people can come along and meet the crew and find out what is entailed in volunteering. They take place on Sunday March 8 from 10am - 12 noon and on the afternoon of Monday 9 from 4pm - 8pm.

Steve Tollett said: “Everyone is welcome to come along and find out more. You can also ring Richard Tollett on 01797 223631.”