Llandudno RNLI needs new lifeboat house

Jun 18 2009 North Wales Weekly News

THE need for a new lifeboat house in Llandudno is becoming increasingly urgent if the resort is to retain its all weather lifeboat.

Speaking to the North Wales Business Club in Deganwy last week, RNLI director of operations Michael Vlasto described the important role the Llandudno crews play in ensuring the safety of craft off the North Wales coast.

“In this connection he highlighted the pressing need for a new lifeboathouse to be built to house the next generation of all weather lifeboats, to cut response times and to obviate the need to take the lifeboat through the town’s streets,” said Llandudno RNLI spokesman Alan Sharp.

The existing lifeboathouse in Lloyd Street is too small to house the larger next generation of off shore boats, and it can take 12 minutes to tow the boat through the streets to the North Shore slipway.

The crew are also disadvantaged because there are no changing or showering facilities.

In 2004 they were disappointed when their hopes for a new boathouse on the beach next to the pier were dashed because of the difficulty in getting permission to build next to the pier wall, which has Grade II listed building status.

But delighted conservationists, who feared the building would ruin the view of the resort’s North Shore, and set a planning precedent allowing other buildings to go up on the prom, welcomed the news.

John Lawson Reay, chairman of Llandudno Historical Society, said: “This proposal was a serious threat to the world famous view of Llandudno bay, which will now be retained.”

But Mr Sharp said the crew was upset by the decision.

“The Llandudno crew reacted with intense disappointment that the present cramped and outdated town centre boathouse, with its lack of facilities, is to continue in use,” he said.

However five years later the RNLI is considering submitting a new planning application and has been discussing possible sites with planning officers and landowners Mostyn Estates.

It still favours a North Shore site and is hoping to overcome the objections of the conservationists by coming up with a design which will blend in with the foreshore.