A FURNESS MP is supporting a new charity which has been launched to assist the UK’s independent lifeboats and ensure the preservation of life on the water.

One of the founding members of National Independent Lifeboat Association (NILA) is Ulverston Inshore Rescue.

While many of the UK’s lifeboats are operated and funded by the Royal National Lifeboat Association (RNLI), there are 46 independent lifeboat organisations that operate along the coastline and on inland waterways across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

UIR has been in operation for two decades, sparked by the tragic deaths of father and son Stewart and Adam Rushton who lost their lives during a fishing trip in Bardsea in 2002.

The incident led to calls for an emergency lifeboat to be placed in Ulverston to prevent such an event from re-occurring.

Ulverston Town Council held a meeting to launch a group made up of coastguards, Ulverston councillors and Duddon Inshore Rescue members to help raise an estimated £20k to fund a new boat and running costs.

The team, which currently has 14 operational volunteers and four committee members, was successfully set up that same year and is still operative two decades later.

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Since then, the team has attended hundreds of incidents – most notably of which is the Morecambe Bay cockling disaster in which 21 Chinese illegal immigrant labourers drowned in 2004 after picking cockles off the Lancashire coast.

NILA was founded by Anthony Mangnall MP following a visit to an independent lifeboat in his constituency of Totnes and South Devon.

Barrow and Furness MP Simon Fell said: “The work that Bruce and his fantastic team of volunteers do at Ulverston Inshore Rescue is incredible. Furthermore, we’re fortunate to have other fantastic independent lifeboat organisations such as Duddon Inshore Rescue at Askam, also working hard as volunteers to keep our coastline safe.

“I’m pleased to have been working together with my colleague, Anthony Magnall MP, to help establish the NILA, and I am pleased to see it launch so successfully. The Association brings together skills and experience, along with collaborative fundraising which is of course an essential component, along with volunteer recruitment, retention and upskilling.

“I look forward to seeing the Association grow, so that our independent lifeboat groups can go from strength to strength.”