Slipway extension to help speed up Lifeboat launch times

A Lifeboat service on the Isle of Wight wants to extend its slipway to help speed up launch times.

Freshwater Inshore Rescue, an independent lifeboat station on the Island, has asked the Isle of Wight Council for permission to extend its slipway.

Due to a shingle build-up on the end of the existing slipway, launching, and recovery, of the lifeboats can either be seriously delayed or prevented.

The crew, which patrols from Hurst Point all the way down the Military Road to St Catherine’s Point, is the first port of call for those who need it and get into trouble in and on the water at some of the most popular Island beaches.

The existing facility in Freshwater Bay is a solid concrete slipway running from the promenade onto the beach and the extension would add 9.8m.

In the design and access statement, planning agents say the structure has been conceived to eliminate any effects on the current movement of the beach shingle — which moves around the Bay depending on the weather.

The Environmental Agency has made no objection to the plans.

Comments on the application can be made for three weeks after it was advertised in the press (May 29) until June 19.