11:40am Thursday 4th October 2007
By Rachel Pegg
A town has its own coastwatch station for the first time.
Newhaven has been declared a station for the National Coastwatch Insitution and an official part of the area's Search and Rescue plan. Volunteers have been training for three years to gain the status.
The National Coastwatch Institution was set up in 1994 to protect the shores after two fishermen died off the Cornish coast. Many small coastguard stations had been closed due to Government cuts.
Jon Gifford, chairman of the trustees, presented Newhaven Station with a certificate awarded by the Chief Coastguard on Wednesday.
In February the station was given a £35,000 grant by the Gannet Trust, the charity arm of the parent company of The Argus and Newsquest (Sussex) Ltd.
It is now trying to raise extra funds so it can upgrade the building next to Newhaven Fort. Volunteers want to replace the steel ladder inside with a staircase to make it more accessible.
The NCI is funded entirely by donations. There are 38 stations round the country with three or four more opening every year.
One is due to open shortly at Shoreham beach, where volunteers have a lease on a Second World War searchlight tower. The tower will be refurbished with the support of Shoreham Port Authority.
The Newhaven station was assessed over two days in July. There were two exercises with Newhaven lifeboat, where a man was dumped overboard and volunteers had to spot him.
The station's spokesman Dennis Morgan said: "This showed how incredibly difficult it is to spot a head bobbing in the water from half to three quarters of a mile away, even with the powerful binoculars bought for us by the Royal Society of St George.
"It took the efforts of all in the lookout several minutes to see him. Then we had to direct the lifeboat on to him using a special system whereby our telephone was connected to the lifeboat's radio channel."
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.theargus.co.uk/trade_directory/