"Blood On Their Hands" Says Union As Councillors Discuss Plan To Reduce Lifeguards

Summer lifeguard station plans are up for discussion this week after Brighton and Hove City Council agreed to reduce the service’s budget by £100,000.

Proposals to the Tourism, Equalities, Community and Culture Committee are for four beach lifeguard stations operating from May to September. An additional three are to be added during the six-week school holidays.

The lifeguard service previously operated from 10 designated beaches during the school holidays and seven during the rest of the summer season from Saltdean to Hove Lagoon.

The designated swimming areas that lifeguards supervise are indicated by red and yellow flags on the beaches, with buoys in a box formation in the water defining a “swim zone”.

Lifeguards had their funding cut at the annual “budget council” meeting last month because they do not provide a statutory service. The cuts were part of a £14 million programme of savings.

A petition to stop the lifeguard budget cuts was signed by more than 3,300 people before the budget council meeting on Thursday 23 February.

Petition organiser Justine Stephens said at the time:

“A lifeguard is viewed as ‘non-essential’ until you need a lifeguard to save a life, then it’s vitally important.”

Lifeguards’ union rep Richard Woolven, from Unison, said that councillors making the cut risked having “blood on their hands”.

The report to the committee next Thursday (9 March) said:

“The core focus will remain on resourcing those beaches with the greatest number of visitors, hazards, and incidents.

“This will assist with the transition to a longer-term more sustainable model to be developed during the year and introduced from 2024.”

A long-term lifeguard model is being designed to go before a future committee, with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) given as an alternative option.

During the 2022 season, an estimated 750,000 people used the lifeguarded beaches, and 143,000 went in the water.

The lifeguard service

• helped reunite 171 missing people
• tackled 81 incidents of anti-social behaviour and abuse
• handled 11 mental health incidents
• responded to 92 major and non-life-threatening incidents
• saved 40 lives

…

The four beaches to be served by lifeguards all summer are east of the Palace Pier, west of the Palace Pier, opposite the bottom of West Street by the council’s seafront office and by the King Alfred in Hove.

Last year the beach at West Street had the most beach users, more than a quarter of the major and non-life-threatening incidents and nearly a quarter of the missing people.

During the six-week school summer holiday, three more beaches will have lifeguards – Saltdean, the West Pier to the bandstand and the Hove Lawns beaches. These beaches have been assessed as medium to high-risk beaches by the RNLI.

Beaches without lifeguards will have signs advising visitors about hazards and the distance to the nearest beach with lifeguards.

Warning signs will also be placed on each groyne, warning of the risk of jumping or diving into the water.

The council’s Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm next Thursday (9 March). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.