New river rescue cabinets installed

In the last few moths of the last Liberal Democrat administration I attended the River Safety group where the installation of new cabinets for the riverside to increase safety was discussed and plans were put in place for the installation of these cabinets.

The Safety of the river is very important and we have lost too many lives in recent years in the river Avon and these cabinets will go some way to helping.

Bath & North East Somerset Council has put in place 14 new river rescue cabinets along the River Avon in Bath.

The cabinets, installed in the stretch of river from Windsor Bridge to Pulteney Bridge, have been specially designed for the Council to protect the life buoys inside from vandalism and damage. The locked grey and orange cabinets containing the lifebuoys can be opened with a code provided by the Fire and Rescue Service Control when callers dial 999. 

The cabinets have been extensively tested by volunteers and members of the River Safety Group, made up of representatives from Avon and Somerset Police, Avon Fire & Rescue, Bath & North East Somerset Council, the Environment Agency and the Canal and Rivers Trust. As a result of feedback from the testing, the instructions on the cabinets have been improved so that the lifebuoy can be accessed more easily and the fire and rescue service can respond more quickly.

How to use:

If you see someone in the river, dial 999 and ask for Fire.  You will be given a code to open the river rescue cabinet.  Once open, you can take out the lightweight yellow life buoy which has a long rope attached.  Holding on to the rope, throw the life buoy to the person in the water. They need to hold tight to the buoy while the rope is used to pull them to the edge.

One of the benefits of the new design is that Avon Fire & Rescue Service will be immediately alerted of any incidents and will send help. Avon Fire & Rescue Service Group Manager, Matt Hunt, said: “We welcome the introduction of the new tamper-proof lifebuoy cabinets which will provide emergency equipment for anyone who may need to help someone in the water. Callers will provide our Control Room with a location reference from the cabinet and will be given the code to access the rescue equipment. This will allow us to mobilise firefighters with specialist equipment to a confirmed location in order that we can help anyone in need.

One of the cabinets will be on display, with instructions as to how it works, at the One Stop Shop in Manvers Street, Bath, until September 18.

The cabinets are just one of the safety measures introduced by the River Safety Group to help make Bath a safer place.  The group, formally established in 2014, and supported by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), has implemented a number of safety measures along the River Avon. 

Since 2011 Bath & North East Somerset Council has spent in the region of £500,000 on river safety; it plans to spend £150,000 on the river corridor in the 2015/16 and will be seeking partner contributions to increase that figure.

Students from Bath City College have been working with the River Safety Group to encourage young people to think about their own safety with their #gotyaback campaign.  The campaign has been shared on social media and via a specially created film which you can find on their website gotyaback.org.