We need a new station but not on the prom

Jun 25 2009 by Our Correspondent, North Wales Weekly News

THE issue that Llandudno needs a new lifeboat house is not in question. The real question is where?

Ten years ago the Lifeboat Institute made a planning application for massive building adjacent to the pier entrance at an estimated cost of £2million it would now cost at least £4million.

This was turned down at a public inquiry on a number of grounds, its attachment to the pier, a listed building, the design and scale of the boathouse, its impact on the conservation area and more importantly the quite real dangers to the public of having 44 tons of steel pounding down the busiest part of the promenade to launch at the present slipway.

In addition the late Lord Mostyn, who was at the time the president of the local lifeboat branch, objected to the development as the owner of the promenade. This is all history.

Now the question of where to site a new boathouse. There is only one place left, that is to share with the Llandudno Sailing club. There is plenty of space. The present clubhouse is nearing the end of its life and needs renewing. A combined clubhouse and lifeboat house would make good economic sense as they would be able to share facilities such as showers and changing rooms. A new slipway would be built just opposite which could be used conveniently by the yachts and the lifeboat. I would suggest that the cost of this would be under £2million.

The local authority would be happy with this as they would no longer have to maintain, at great cost, the dangerous wooden slipway by the Imperial Hotel which is currently used by the yachts.

There are other issues. It has been suggested that in very bad weather the lifeboat would not be able to be launched from the middle of the bay. Since, because of the problem of an extensive rock field at the pier end of the bay, the lifeboat has to be launched in the middle of the bay whenever the tide leaves the present slipway. This is for approximately 16 hours every day. In extremis the boat could be towed to the present slipway to launch. Rhyl lifeboat, which is identical to ours, has to launch on a completely exposed beach and I know of no occasion when they have been unable launched on an emergency.

John Lawson-Reay

Llandudno