AN APPEAL to help pay for a major rebuild of Minehead’s RNLI lifeboat house has been given a helping hand by local gardeners.

Members of the Minehead Gardening Association have handed over £275 - all proceeds from plant sales - as their contribution towards the £250,000 target. The figure represents a quarter of the total cost of the scheme drawn up by the RNLI to modernise and enlarge the 120-year old listed building.

Work is expected to start in late autumn, and Minehead RNLI chairman Richard Newton said financial support was beginning to roll in from a number of quarters locally.

“We are extremely grateful to the Gardening Association – they have a fine record of raising money for various charitable causes and we are delighted they have decided to support a local project this time,” he said.

The work will see the station extended westwards onto land the RNLI has bought from the local authority, with the ground floor extension enabling the creation of a crew changing room with showers and a separate female crew changing space, a dedicated mechanics’ workshop and a souvenir shop.

But, said a spokesman, “one of the most important improvements will be the provision of a full-length garage at the rear of the building which will allow the D class - normally launched through the harbour - to remain permanently hitched to its tractor, enabling the crew to shave minutes off its response times.”

People wishing to support the appeal can donate and / or fundraise in a number of ways. They can visit the Justgiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/

Minehead-RNLI-Lifeboat-Station-Appeal

Or they can make a direct donation to the appeal by contacting the fundraising team at Minehead RNLI who can provide online banking details or a postal address for donations. Call Liz Escott on 07877 952975.

People who want to hold a fundraising event or activity can set up their own justgiving page by visiting www.justgiving.com and clicking on the ‘Start Fundraising’ button.