Letter: Praise for volunteers from '˜Ladies' guild

Last week, members of the Ladies Lifeboat Guild were given the opportunity of a conducted tour of the new Shannon Lifeboat which we are fortunate to have on our Foreshore. What a treat! And for a small charge.

How sad therefore, to have this wonderful asset over-shadowed by the ongoing quarrel among the crew.

The procedure which takes place when a call-out is received, was explained to us, starting with the coastguards (not included in the Tom Clark list) - moving on to assembling crew members, tractor crew etc, and finally launching. Of course, we had many questions to ask, and being confronted with this magnificent craft with its high technology, accompanied by bells, buttons, radar system, it prompted me to ask, what does it cost to take this vessel out to sea? For even to my inexperienced eye a boat of this calibre requires massive power and fuel consumption to operate effectively. We do not count the cost when saving lives and helping people in distress, or “penny pinch” in the training of these brave men who deserve the very best equipment we can give them on their perilous outings, but it is of interest to know these facts and figures. The answer to my question was - £2,000-3,000 per outing. (Lots of raffles to organise, cakes to bake, and work for the fundraisers to help keep the coffers filled up.) When I read the report of “unauthorised training outings” I confess to thinking how often do these take place and are they cost effective? We are all saddened to hear of this fine man’s illustrious career ending in such unhappy circumstances; brave men are hard to find, and we hope common sense will prevail. So that our volunteer crew will resume their places, reunite, to give this incredible boat the highly-trained manpower it so deserves, and we all cherish: and learn from mistakes made.

Eileen Gledhill

Derwent Close

Scarborough