With many thanks to Peter Bryden at the Nith Inshore Rescue for taking the time to keep us all up to date:
Update to Caerlaverock Community Association – May 2021
Since the start of the year and as such, Lockdown, Nith Inshore Rescue has like all other organisations and the entire community, needed to adapt to overcome the various challenges posed by the restrictions. This has, until recent weeks, seen a temporary postponement of all practical training other than vital service critical training for example first aid skills etc, which was completed under strict control following risk assessment.
The only activity we have been able to undertake in the last 5+ months has been responding to callouts and as such we have had little else we have been able to report on during that time. The callouts we have had have been quite varied and have seen us attending locally in the Solway & Nith and also seen a team, and our dog handler Jo with Search Dog Tam, deployed by the Coastguard to assist in search at Kirkcudbright.
Now that we are resuming training and other activities and are more “back to normal” there is quite a lot we can update on from the year so far.
Our previous Chair Joe Bilous has taken on a new role with Natural England in Cumbria, which has seen Joe, his wife Sarah and their dog Bramble move to the Penrith Area. We wish all three the very best and they remain in touch with the crew and all going well we will see them this during summer.
Many of the Community will be aware that Ronnie Clark (junior) has now taken on the role of the Chairperson of Nith Inshore Rescue. Ronnie is one of our longest serving crew, is a veteran of hundreds of callouts and brings a huge amount of knowledge and experience to the role. Ronnie is well known and respected throughout the local community and provides an excellent role model for all of us in the crew. The Chairperson post now, like similar organisations, holds a maximum two year tenure after which a new Chair will take over aided and supported by the previous incumbent. After 2 years a previous Chair can seek re-election.
Ronnie is also assisted by Laurie Irving in the new Role of Vice-Chair & Training Lead and Gwilym Gibbons as Treasurer, myself as Secretary and the other members of the Trustee Committee. Wally Wright continues as our Honorary President and continues to keep us right with advice and sharing anecdotes and the history of NIR which is important for all new crew to be aware of.
Throughout the last few months John Burton, our Station Officer – Chris Jackson and Stuart Forsyth have done an exceptional job of maintaining all of our equipment ranging from PPE to the vehicles and boats. This “behind the scenes” work is vital to the delivery of the service and these are the real unsung heroes in voluntary organisations. Douglas Anderson provides a great amount of support to the crew through his wise counsel and assistance to our Maintenance Team.
In January we received confirmation that we have achieved the Declared Facility Status from HM Coastguard. This elevates our status as a now declared HM Coastguard resource and recognises our high standards of training and equipment. This has came about through years of hard work and we thank all crew past and present, particularly Robbie Cowan, in getting us to this level.
Some other major developments in the last few months include new engines fitted to our Lifeboat St John and the acquisition of a second road vehicle on loan.
St John is, surprisingly – especially for all of the community who attended the launch event – now 10 years old and with use, along with technological developments, the engines were nearing the end of their working life for a lifeboat. Money was provided following a grant award from the Department for Transport and our twin two stroke 90 horsepower Mariner Engines have now been replaced with up-to-date 115 horse power four stroke engines; this was completed by Chris Dobson of UKMEL in Cumbria ably assisted by Douglas. This saw a complete refurbishment of the boats equipment, wiring and fuel lines and new communications equipment fitted.
Lloyd Isuzu have provided us with a long term loan of an Isuzu D-Max as another road vehicle. The trusty land rover simply does not have enough room to allow us sufficient space to adhere to COVID related distancing and carry the required crew numbers at the same time. Having another vehicle has quickly overcame this. This has been fully kitted out for emergency response. We are very grateful to Lloyd Isuzu for this kind donation which has seen a real benefit in how we use two vehicles at an incident.
We have also taken on a few new faces following successful applications and during training you will see us putting these trainee crew through their paces.
The crew have been quite humbled in recent weeks that a range of clinical teams at Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary including Out-patients and Paediatrics have completed a baton relay challenge and raised £1655. As with all other charities we have seen a drop in donations through COVID particularly from one of our key income sources which are the charity tins normally found in retail premises. We are grateful to all in Caerlaverock for their unerring support especially through the tote.
There is much more to tell over the coming months and we will continue to provide regular updates throughout the year.
Peter Bryden
Secretary
Nith Inshore Rescue
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