VOLUNTEERS with the Royal national Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in Minehead are offering guided tours of the town’s refurbished lifeboat station.

So many people have shown an interest in the new building that organised visits are now being run twice a week.

The station, originally built in 1901, has undergone a £1 million transformation to speed up launch times and provide the volunteer crew with their first-ever changing rooms, showers, office accommodation, and training room.

Now, local people will have an opportunity to inspect the boathouse at close quarters and learn more about the work of the station, with guided tours offered on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 12 noon to 2 pm and 2 pm to 4 pm.

The tours will continue until the official opening of the building on October 7.

RNLI Minehead chairman Richard Newton said there had been a huge amount of interest in the project.

Mr Newton said: “We had tremendous support from local people when we set about raising our quarter-share of the building cost and many of them are keen to see what their donations have been able to provide.

“In contrast to the old lifeboat station, which did not make much of a visual impact, the enlarged version is a striking piece of architecture and a great many people are now expressing an interest in seeing what is inside it.”