Southport Lifeboat Station nearing completion as first images released

As many of you will have seen, construction on the new Southport Lifeboat Station has almost been completed.

The new building, which has been paid for by your donations, will house all of the equipment used by our organisation, which is completely independent from the RNLI.

Whilst we are waiting for the finishing touches, we'd like to share with you some images from inside our new home. 

Flick through the images attached to find out more about each room inside the new Lifeboat Station, and how it will help our volunteers save lives in the local area. 

Southport Lifeboat commented...

As we wait to move in, we are now asking for your help with donations to furnish our Lifeboat Station,

As the finishing touches are applied to the building, we are now asking for your help with donations to furnish our Lifeboat Station, details of how to donate to us can be found on our website, www.southport-lifeboat.org.uk

Being independent means that we are not part of the RNLI, so we raise funds locally which are spent to save lives in the local area. The RNLI has not had a lifeboat service in Southport since 1925, their nearest stations are in Lytham St Annes and New Brighton. The Southport Lifeboat was set up in the late 1980s after bereaved relatives set up the charity following a number of tragedies along the Southport coast cost the lives of many young men and women.

The boathouse area is large enough to accommodate both of our Lifeboats and their respective launch vehicles, as well as our ATVs. At our current lifeboat house, some equipment is stored outside or in containers as our service has outgrown the building.

As an independent lifeboat station, we do not have a network of relief assets to call upon if something breaks down. Therefore, we have included a workshop within the premises so that our volunteer crew can easily service or repair the equipment and keep the vehicles in top condition.

Our volunteers will no longer have to get changed in the same area as where the boat, tractor and quads are stored as we have a large changing area. This area will be filled with equipment storage lockers for the dry suits, lifejackets, helmets and other PPE that they use.

Crew will be able to wash their kit down with warm water for the first time ever in our wash down room. Currently, our volunteers must wash down outside with cold water.

And then the wet kit will be placed in a drying room. Our old lifeboat house was built in 1886 and doesn't have any heating. Crew often return to the boathouse in winter months and find their equipment is still damp from the week before!

Kitchen facilities will mean that the volunteers will be able to have a hot meal after a long call out, or have refreshments during theory training sessions. At our current station, we have a kettle situated in a room that is also used as a workshop and store room for our spare parts.

And on the top floor there is a lookout tower and operations room, where our shore crew will be able to keep in contact with all of our assets on training and call outs.

In addition, the new lifeboat station has a platform lift so volunteers and visitors can easily access the first floor, a large storage area, and in a first for the Southport Lifeboat, toilet facilities. A comprehensive CCTV and alarm system have been installed to protect the building when the volunteers are not there.

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