Sir,
I note that at long last a planning application has been submitted for conversion of the old Lifeboat Station for residential use. I for one await the outcome with interest.
I trust that the planners duly consider their past attitude to the RNLI over the years. We were not permitted to add extra windows, nor vital aerials when we wished, let alone the balcony and acres of glass now on the plans. When we wished to add a crew room in the ceiling void, the structural beams were said to be a visual sacrosanct feature and must be untouched. This meant a room in constant use for training and communications with a girder dividing the space at four feet, with associated webs to the roof. These are now to be removed wholesale, I see, making a nonsense of the original listing.
Let us hope that should planning be granted, watertight conditions are imposed as to responsibility when the structure eventually fails. Better still, let us remove this eyesore so that the magnificent replacement facility can be seen and admired as the fine building it is.
Arthur Squibbs,