The CEO is on £180k per year. They are cash rich and have an offer of financial help from Cornwall Council to provide lifeguard cover. They are blaming Boris for telling folk they can drive anywhere and sunbathe (i.e. to the beaches) and have been refusing to provide lifeguards as they feel it will put lifeguards at risk of Coronavirus if they have to assist people in trouble. They clearly haven't weighed up the risk of people drowning as an alternative. And now that people (predictably) have, they are going to give 30% cover, which is woefully inadequate. I've been down the beach today helping out with the lads who would usually be uniformed up with all the kit. We had to borrow a couple of paddle boards and first aid kit from the Surf club instead. They are ****ing seething at the RNLI. Apparently it's a really rigid organisation that doesn't listen to it's lifeguards or 'shop floor' workers. The HQ is in Dorset, where they have fairly safe beaches and they do not understand the risks that an Atlantic facing beach with nothing between it and North America presents to inexperienced water users.
All the major charities are now just large businesses and run as such by those at the top .Made worse in the last 20 years by so many bidding for outsourced public sector work in areas the charities are active in so compromising their stance towards Govt policies as it may impact on their "business".
Yep, lifeguards are the eyes on the beach and the water. And often a lot of their work is speaking to people about how to stay safe, where to swim, where to surf, what the conditions are like, how the tide is running, how the conditions will change through the tide etc. So it's preventative work. The lifeboats are a volunteer service and will go out on a shout after a 999 call to the coastguard. The horse has very definitely bolted. I've seen hoards of tourists down here, their cars packed with the kids, granny, the dog, a cool box, windbreakers etc. Basically on a jolly. So the RNLI have responded with 30% cover, but that is nowhere near enough. More people will drown this summer. Guaranteed.
Heard a lot of negative stuff about the RSPCA including corruption at the very top. Then there's that whole case of Oxfam sexual abuse incidents.
Dead easy to be critical when you’re not the one having to be responsible for the decision mate. Try writing a risk assessment for COVID suitable for a ****ing lifeguard that provides an acceptable level of risk complete with PPE. I don’t blame the CEO for not wanting to know at present, and they’re right btw, as if we had a society with any level of joined up thinking, the lack of lifeguard cover would have come up before people were told it was sound to flock down the beach again.
Oh I see the difficulty. The problem now is that Boris has given the green light and people are drowning, so what do they do ?
I don’t think Boris has given the green light for people to go out swimming in unsafe waters mate. The lack of personal responsibility in this country is quite worrying.
Pass the problem back to central Govt and get them to indemnify them for any issues that arose as a result of them putting lifeguards back on the beaches. That assumes that those who do the job are happy to take the risk, which is far from a given.
Most of the lifeguards I speak to are willing to do it as they know the risks of people drowning are very real. They've been trying to pressure the RNLI into providing cover, but in the absence, have now started to offer a low key volunteer service instead, which I was helping out with today. I'm not a trained lifeguard, but I'm an experienced water user and have plenty of first aid training from my NHS days. If somebody was drowning, I wouldn't think twice about going to save them. Coronavirus would be way down on my list of risk priorities. But you're right, this needs to be batted back to central Govt to come up with a clear plan about keeping lifeguards safe, now that they have said folk can drive to the beaches etc.
True. The problem is that without the lifeguards, a lot of folk simply don't know that the water is unsafe. They have heard Boris tell them it's okay to go to the beach, so in the drink they go.
