Why won’t the RNLI listen to volunteers
I HAVE great empathy with the Pwllheli lifeboat volunteers (Mail) who felt ignored in a dispute and were ‘effectively sacked’, as similar disrespect and disdain has been shown to two of our long-serving station officers at Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex.
Why do the charity’s paid officials, most of whom have no idea about seamanship and team loyalty, behave in such an autocratic manner towards unpaid volunteers who are the lifeblood of the service?
We have had a seagoing lifeboat at Walton since 1884. The team has saved hundreds of lives, including rescuing the crews of large vessels in trouble on the treacherous sandbanks off our coast. In 1966, ours was the busiest lifeboat station in the whole of the UK. Fifteen months ago, with hardly any warning or consultation, the RNLI announced that our lifeboat was to be withdrawn later this year and replaced with an inflatable 16ft dinghy.
Our town was in uproar but the lifeboat branch got nowhere in dissuading RNLI management from their action, which would leave us without an all-weather lifeboat for the first time in 140 years.
After speaking against these plans, our branch chairman Philip Oxley, who has served in an exemplary manner in different positions for 57 years, has left only a few months after his son, lifeboat operations manager stewart Oxley, was ‘stood down’ (as the RNLI put it) for similar reasons. successive generations of the Oxley family had been lifeboat volunteers here for 94 years, since 1930. This has resulted in the resignation of our coxswain and four highly experienced crew members. Although the RNLI says it will still be able to provide an ‘effective lifesaving response’ in the area, in my view the full lifesaving capabilities of our renowned lifeboat station have been undermined. Even worse, our new Tamar-class lifeboat was bought thanks to a £3 million bequest from a generous Walton woman. sadly, today’s RNLI management seem to have no heed of the proud traditions of local lifeboat communities. I view their attitude towards loyal servants of the institution as despicable.
MICHAEL CHAPLIN, walton-on-the-Naze, essex.