PLANS are being put in place for a National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) station to be opened in Minehead as the charity expands its presence along the Somerset coast.

The national charity has nearly 60 operational stations around Britain manned by more than 2,600 volunteer watchkeepers.

Now, NCI wants to improve safety along the Bristol Channel by opening stations on the Somerset coastline to supplement existing services provided by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

Local stations are self-funded and run by volunteer watchkeepers, fund-raisers, and helpers.

NCI local project lead Iain Sherring said watch stations were passive ‘Eyes Along The Coast’, literally using their eyes as well as optical instruments, ship identification software, and CCTV cameras to monitor beaches, coastal paths, sand bars, tide, and weather.

They monitored radio channels and provided a listening watch in poor visibility.

Mr Sherring said volunteers were trained to deal with emergencies, offering a variety of skills and experience, while full training by the NCI ensured that high standards were met.

He said: “Watchkeepers are on watch during daylight hours, and when a station is established and operational, operates 365 days of the year.

“Stations report directly to HM Coastguard if any incidents are spotted, or if activities along the coast could possibly escalate to an incident.

“NCI develops new stations where they and HM Coastguard see evidence of the requirement from previous incident analysis, local support, and relevant locations being available.”

Mr Sherring said the RNLI was mainly a reactive search and rescue organisation, while National Coastwatch was proactive in the passive watching of the coastline and reporting potential incidents and ongoing incidents to the Coastguard service.

Volunteers do not need to have any maritime or uniform service experience because they will be fully trained by NCI.

Anybody interested in becoming a Minehead watchkeepers can find out more information on the NCI website at www.nci.org.uk/join.