All activity at Sheringham RNLI has been suspended with immediate effect after analysis of a structural survey of the lifeboat station building resulted in serious safety concerns.
An independent structural engineer inspected the building and its position against the cliff just before Christmas 2024, with the full report being available in January 2025.
Initial findings indicate that the lifeboat station building may be at the end of its lifespan and that fact, combined with what is already known about the land behind, has led to increased safety concerns.
Anna Heslop, RNLI Regional Operations Lead, North and East, said: ‘We have taken the incredibly difficult decision to suspend all activity, including lifesaving operations, at Sheringham RNLI immediately.
‘Keeping our people safe is our number one priority, it takes courage to speak up about what could go wrong, and that’s what happened here – but we don’t underestimate just how hard this is for our Sheringham volunteers who are, rightly, proud of their part in the RNLI’s purpose of saving lives at sea.
‘The station backs onto steep land that may be at risk of sliding forward. We had an inspection on our lifeboat station building and we’ve responded swiftly to initial findings about its condition.
‘A monitoring system has been in place – but, on further analysis on Thursday 30 January with a wider group of estates experts, the nature of the risk to the safety of our people was deemed too high to mitigate and manage by the monitoring system alone.
‘We want people to volunteer, and work, in the safest possible environment. The expertise offered on 30 January tells us that we must keep our people out of the station for now and have further work done to fully understand the condition of the building.’
Search and rescue cover is being provided by Wells RNLI and Cromer RNLI, Sheringham’s flanking stations.
