Urgent meeting called after reports of cars blocking lifeboat access

Jun 23 2010 by Alan Weston, Heswall News

AN URGENT meeting is to be held after a lifeboat boss lashed out at selfish motorists who blocked a crucial passageway used by lifeboat crews when answering an emergency.

New Brighton lifeboat operation manager Cliff Downing took these pictures of cars parked both on and around the roundabout.

The lifeboat crew has to negotiate the roundabout – close to the Floral Pavilion theatre – to reach the slipway where the lifeboat is launched.

Mr Downing said: “It’s not acceptable in any way shape or form. We have to go round that roundabout with a lifeboat on the back and launch at New Brighton pier.

“If there had been an incident, we could not have got the lifeboat through because of all the illegally parked cars.

“This is not the first time this has happened. When I went down there, I saw one or two people I knew getting in and out of their cars and asked them if they would shift their vehicle, but as soon as they did another took its place.”

“The New Brighton lifeboat station is situated around 50 yards from the roundabout. The problem is that with all the development going on here, we’ve lost between 200 and 300 car parking spaces.”