 This morning I was invited to visit the Coastwatch station at Holehaven on Canvey.
The Coastwatch stations around the country perform a really valuable function, despite the fact that the organisation which runs them, the National Coastwatch Institution, is a charity and its stations are all manned by volunteers.
When many of the original coastguard lookouts were shut down over a decade ago to save money, people felt that there was still a role for the visual look-out. Volunteers came forward, and the first stations were established. The charity has gone from strength to strength. The station at Holehaven Creek has been running for 10 years now.
I was impressed by the knowledge and dedication of the team I met on Canvey. And it is amazing that they can keep the station fully manned during daylight hours entirely by local volunteers. Mind you, watching the view and all the river activity is quite an enjoyable was of passing a few hours.
The area they are surveying is, of course, a really important stretch of water, with all the industrial and other shipping on this part of the Estuary. And the list of incidents which the station, and others across the country, have helped resolve is testament to the
importance of the work they do.
However, I think there is another less tangible benefit from the work the Canvey station does, which is deterring irresponsible or criminal behaviour around out coast because people know someone is paying attention.
Having visited, I can well see the benefits to the local community of the operation being moved East around the sea-wall to give better sight-lines of the beach. I will do whatever I can in future to help make that happen.
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