River rescue centre

IF YOU are going to get into trouble with your boat on a river, around Tewkesbury is the best place to do it.

 

For over the weekend firefighters and charity workers launched the first combined water rescue centre in the country based at Tewkesbury Fire Station, where the Avon meets the Severn, Alan Tilbury tells us.

Centre

Not only do the premises house the county's fire service and the Severn Area Rescue Association, but also form Gloucestershire's centre of operations for water rescue.

The organisations share eight powered lifeboats, 10 un-powered life rafts, two hovercraft and more than 300 trained first responders, who can be deployed within minutes to carry out rescues.

Not only will the centre cope with water rescue, but will prove invaluable should the area experience flooding as it did in 2007.