Home » Mumbles lifeboat station remains closed after two years

Mumbles lifeboat station remains closed after two years

Mumbles Pier - the RNLI lifeboat station is the building with the curved roof, it replaced the previous lifeboat station on the left (Pic: Richard Youle)

IT HAS BEEN two years since the lifeboat station at the end of Mumbles Pier closed and there doesn’t appear to be a quick resolution in sight.

Swansea Council said it shared the concerns of lifeboat charity the RNLI about the lack of access and said it had made significant offers of financial support to the pier’s owners.

Pier co-owner Fred Bollom, of family firm Amusement Equipment Co Ltd, said he was grateful for the offers but he hadn’t been able to take them up because of certain conditions attached.

The RNLI lifeboat station at the end of the pier was built just over a decade ago at a cost of around £11m. It housed what was then Mumbles’s new all-weather lifeboat, which launched from a slipway. There was also a small RNLI visitor centre and shop.

Two years ago the RNLI removed the £2.7m lifeboat from the station after it said a structural engineer identified issues with the pier structure.

Since then, the lifeboat has been moored a couple of hundred metres out to sea, with crew members accessing it via a boarding vessel from the shore. Mumbles also has a smaller inshore lifeboat.

Twelve months ago Mr Bollom said he was in negotiations with the RNLI, the council and Amusement Equipment Co’s funders to secure the pier and the company was also awaiting the final resolution of a fire insurance claim.

Mr Bollom told the Local Democracy Reporting Service there wasn’t a great deal to report since then.

He claimed he hadn’t received any proposal from the RNLI or council. He said he had sought to arrange a meeting with the RNLI to discuss access to the lifeboat station along with parking provision.

The RNLI said it was working closely with the pier owners and other parties to find a cost-effective solution to secure the pier’s long-term future in order to restore access to the lifeboat station.

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An RNLI spokeswoman said: “In 2023, the owner took the decision to close a section of the pier to the public due to safety concerns.

“This led the RNLI to introducing contingency plans to enable our crews to reach the lifeboat without using the pier for access.

“The Mumbles RNLI lifeboat station remains temporarily closed due to access issues, however the Tamar class all-weather lifeboat remains fully operational from a swing mooring adjacent to the pier.”

Mr Bollom said he suggested to the RNLI that access to the lifeboat station could be maintained by extending an aluminium walkway which he had  installed along the pier.

Money was spent refurbishing sections of the pier a few years ago and, according to Mr Bollom, “the structural issues are the same as they have been for some time”.

An area of the foreshore adjacent to Mumbles Pier is currently closed (Pic: Richard Youle)

Swansea Council, meanwhile, said it corresponded with the RNLI regularly and shared its concerns about the continued delay in restoring access to the lifeboat station.

A council spokesman said: “The owners of the pier are aware of significant offers of financial support that have been made to assist them in restoring Mumbles pier.

“These include a £1m loan and a £450,000 grant. It is up to the owners to decide if they wish to accept this support and progress the necessary work.”

Mr Bollom said he was very grateful for the offers but said they were contingent on the pier owners providing security such as debt-free buildings or businesses.

He said this wasn’t possible as they had spent millions of pounds maintaining RNLI access to the pier over the decades – the current lifeboat station replaced a previous one – and had taken on debt in the process.

Construction costs have risen considerably in recent times, and the pier owners have had to deal with the aftermath of accidental fires in 2022 and 2024 which damaged pier foreshore buildings.

The pier and a section of adjacent land is currently closed to the public but the Copperfish restaurant and Beach Hut Cafe are open.

The Copperfish restaurant by Mumbles Pier is open and has an extended seating area (Pic: Richard Youle)

There has been a lifeboat presence in Mumbles for around 190 years and Cllr Will Thomas, who represents the area, said the 127-year-old pier was a big part of Mumbles’s overall attraction.

He said: “The pier being shut is not good for the community at all.”

Cllr Thomas said he was concerned RNLI response times were being delayed by the lack of pier access.

The RNLI said the impact on its operations was minimal because there was no requirement for the crew to gather and prepare the lifeboat for a slipway launch.

The spokeswoman said it remained hopeful of returning the lifeboat to the station in the very near future.

The RNLI shop, which used to be at the lifeboat station, has relocated to the inshore lifeboat station, and the spokeswoman said it would reopen for the school half-term in February.

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