RNLI and Independent Lifeboats: Covid-19

Jonathan Edwards Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2020 Westminster Hall

[Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr) (Ind)]

Diolch yn fawr iawn, Mr Hosie. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, and I congratulate the hon. Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall) on securing this debate and on the positive suggestions he put forward.

Carmarthen East and Dinefwr is a largely landlocked constituency, apart from one small enclave along the lower Tywi and Gwendraeth estuaries, encompassing the villages of Ferryside and Llansaint. It is an area of outstanding beauty. I used to visit it often as a child; my parents used to take me to the other side of the Tywi, to Llansteffan. Every time I go down to that part of the world, it takes my breath away.

Ferryside is an incredibly close-knit community, and at the heart of the community is the independent lifeboat, which has served the Tywi, Taff and Gwendraeth estuaries, and Carmarthen bay, since 1835. At the start, until the inter-war period, the lifeboat’s main area of business was commercial shipping associated with the port of Carmarthen. Captains would say that entering the bay area—and leaving it—was by far the most treacherous part of the journey.

Today, the Ferryside lifeboat is an integral part of the Saint John Cymru marine division, and call-outs relate mostly to leisure activity in the area. In May 2019, I had the pleasure of launching the new Llansteffan ferry, and I am proud to say that it is probably the safest ferry journey in the British isles, because of the lifeboat in Ferryside.

Carmarthen bay is of course part of the Bristol channel, which has the second largest tidal rise and fall in the world. That gives an indication of the challenging environment that the crew operate in and of the dangers that they face. The lifeboat offers a 24/7 service and is wholly manned by local people working closely with the coastguard. Considering that it is a voluntary service, it is absolutely incredible that their average launch time is only eight minutes.

I have had the honour and privilege of working with the team since my election, and I am always impressed by the dedication and commitment of everybody involved with the lifeboat. Soon after getting elected in 2010, I was offered the opportunity to experience a trip on the new lifeboat. It was a perfectly calm day, so I had absolutely no anxiety when I was donning my kit and taking my place on the boat. It was not long, however, before the water got very choppy out in the bay, and we were speeding among white horses in a new boat powered by two Suzuki 90 hp engines.

Exhilarating would certainly be one word to explain the experience, but on looking at my pale complexion, I think the crew decided quickly to return to the safer and calmer waters of the Tywi river and to head upstream, which was a much more pleasurable experience. The benign—or relatively benign—conditions that day gave me an indication and appreciation of the dangers faced by the lifeboat crew, who not only race towards danger in far worse conditions, but perform search-and-rescue operations in extremely hostile environments.

As the lifeboat is independent, the crew are wholly reliant on their own funding activity. One of the consequences of the pandemic, as has been mentioned in the debate, has been the reduced income faced by search-and-rescue operations. Last year, the lifeboat in Ferryside raised more than £110,000, mostly as a result of substantial grants from the Charities Aid Foundation and the Department for Transport. The lifeboat was also able to raise substantial sums from local fundraising activity. So far this year, I am informed, they have been able to raise only £3,000.

The incredible fall in income is clearly not sustainable. My key ask of the British Government in this debate is that they recognise the importance of the rescue boat grant fund, under which they have successfully issued about £6 million to lifeboats such as Ferryside since the scheme was set up in 2014. It is regrettable that there has been no grant for this financial year. Were the Minister to get to his feet to say that the grant would be available next year, I am sure that that would go a long way to bringing a smile to all our great lifeboats across the British isles.