The current lifeboat station at Swanage is 137 years old and although it has served the RNLI well, it does not provide our volunteer crew with a shower to change after a tiring rescue or proper training space in which to hone their crucial lifesaving skills.

We need to provide modern standards of accommodation for our brave Swanage volunteers. The station has been designed with crew changing facilities and a mechanics workshop. It will also house a crew training room, meeting area, welfare facilities, a Lifeboat Operations Manager’s office and co-house the D class lifeboat. Tom Mansell, interim Divisional Inspector South, said: ‘A new boathouse will secure the future of lifesaving at Swanage and see them well into the 21st century. It will give them a state-of-the-art facilities.’

Work on the boathouse is expected to begin in 2014 and be completed in 2015, subject to planning permission. The Shannon is expected to arrive at the station in late 2015.