RNLI backed by councillors after ‘appalling’ treatment of volunteers

Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter

Councillors have unanimously backed the RNLI following what they described as “unacceptable attacks” on volunteers by anti-migrant protesters.

Swansea Cllr Hannah Williams said she’d found the treatment of some members of the maritime rescue charity by anti-migrant protesters in England “appalling”.

The Mumbles councillor said her husband joined his local lifeboat crew at 17 and during the course of 25-plus years of service had helped rescue 92 people.

She said crew members’ families and loves ones also made a sacrifice as plans could change in the blink of an eye. “The pager is always there,” she said. “It does not discriminate between a quiet evening at home, a child’s birthday, a family barbecue, a meal out. Everything is cast aside the minute that pager sounds.”

Loved ones dread the pager sounding at 2am when a force 10 wind is blowing, she said, and can’t properly rest until the crew member has returned.

“That’s why I found it truly appalling to see the way some members of our lifeboat family have been treated recently,” said Cllr Williams. “They deserve our thanks, they deserve our respect, and they deserve our unwavering support.”

Last month a small minority of anti-migrant protesters in England labelled RNLI “traitors” while an RNLI museum in Poole, Dorset, closed its doors due to what it said were several instances of protesters verbally abusing volunteers.

The RNLI’s website said it launched lifeboats to small boats in the English Channel when HM Coastguard reported that people may be in danger at sea. All small boats crossing the Channel, it said, were classed as being in distress and RNLI crews responded to anyone at risk of drowning regardless of who they were.

The cross-party notice of motion presented by Liberal Democrat opposition leader Cllr Chris Holley at a meeting of full council said Mumbles RNLI had been awarded freedom of the city in 1987 and that attacks on members “are simply unacceptable”.

It added: “They should be supported and thanked not attacked. No-one should interfere with the work of the RNLI volunteers who are there to help people in difficulty and save lives.”

Cllr Holley said: “As a maritime city we appreciate what they have done and what they do.”

It was seconded by Cllr Mary Jones, who recalled the SS Samtampa tragedy of 1947 when 47 people died in a storm including eight members of the Mumbles lifeboat crew who’d sailed to help the stricken vessel at Sker Point, near Porthcawl. Attacks on and criticism of RNLI crews were, she said, deplorable.

Labour council leader Rob Stewart said: “It’s a bizarre situation this country now finds itself in where there are people actively trying to prevent the RNLI from saving people who are in peril in our seas.”

At the heart of these attacks, he said, was a belief “that some human life is less valuable than others”.

Conservative leader Cllr Lyndon Jones said attacking people who put themselves in danger to help others was “totally unacceptable”.

Cllr Sam Bennett said everyone who supported the motion was “on the right side of the argument” while Cllr Sara Keeton said it was “doubly obscene” that those who criticised the RNLI described themselves as patriots.

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