National Coastwatch Charity to Open New Station in Cleethorpes

The National Coastwatch service is preparing to establish a station in a Lincolnshire seaside town. This charity, which collaborates closely with HM Coastguard and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to identify potential dangers, is launching a site in Cleethorpes. The Cleethorpes facility will become the fourth station along the Lincolnshire coast, joining existing locations at Chapel Point, Mablethorpe, and Skegness. Ian Whalley MBE, deputy chairman of National Coastwatch, commented: “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.” He further explained their role: “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 has initiated the process for launching the Cleethorpes station and conducted a public meeting that was “well attended,” according to Mr. Whalley. “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,” he stated. The objective is for the Cleethorpes station to be operational by Easter of the coming year. In July, HM Coastguard responded to reports of a stranded 4×4 vehicle and two water scooters in Cleethorpes. Earlier this year, an exhausted deer was also rescued from the beach. Over the past two years, nearly nine out of 10 incidents reported to the coastguard by National Coastwatch led to the deployment of a lifeboat. In the last year, 338 individuals were rescued from the water as a direct result of these interventions. The National Coastwatch charity, founded in Cornwall in 1994, is operated by volunteers and maintains 60 stations, staffed by 2,815 fully-trained volunteer watchkeepers who all report to HM Coastguard. Mr. Whalley described its purpose: “It’s dedicated to the preservation and protection of life at sea and around the coastline, looking for trouble and calling in the assets.” He added, regarding their equipment: “We use radios, we use automatic ship recognition, very high powered binoculars and radar all to pick up where the issues are.” The charity aims to recruit more volunteers for its Cleethorpes station over the next few months.