TRUSTEES from the National Coastwatch institution (NCI) headquarters have visited the newly-established station in Minehead.

The new NCI station operates temporarily from a display trailer on Minehead seafront, opposite Butlin’s holiday resort.

Spokesman Peter Welch said: “They were impressed by the enthusiasm, professionalism, and dedication of the volunteer watchkeepers and speed of implementation of the station, which normally takes over a year, but which established itself in Minehead in only two months.”

The Minehead watch station is the 59th nationally and the first in Somerset as the charity expands its presence along the Westcountry’s northern coastline.

The institution decided a watch station was urgently needed in Minehead because of the number of incidents occurring around the beach and in the Bristol Channel.

The self-funded watchkeeper station is completely dependent on donations to operate, with volunteers trained in search and rescue assistance techniques working alongside the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)and HM Coastguard.

Mr Welch said people were welcome to visit the Minehead watch station and learn about the vital work carried out by its volunteers to help keep people safe on the beach and at sea off the surrounding coastline.

NCI was founded in 1994 after a fishing boat was lost with all hands in the shadow of a recently closed HM Coastguard lookout post.

The tragedy resulted in local people banding together to form a volunteer watch service which became the NCI.

While the RNLI is mainly a reactive search and rescue organisation, NCI is proactive in passively watching the coastline and reporting potential and ongoing incidents to Coastguards.

Volunteers do not need to have any maritime or uniform service experience because they will be fully trained by NCI.

Anybody who wants to support or join the Minehead watchkeepers can find out more information on the NCI website at www.nci.org.uk.