9th July 2010
A group of enthusiasts in and around Hoylake have initiated a move to establish a Lifeboat Museum in the old boat house – a fine stone building no longer suitable for the new all-weather lifeboat that has been given a new home.
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The former lifeboat building is owned by Peel holdings and the car park is owned by the Council. But it makes sense for both to remain as a ‘package’. The question now is whether the museum project can go ahead.
After hearing a compelling case put by the local Hoylake councillors Adrian proposed that the matter should be referred back to Cabinet. His reasons are that if the sale of the building goes ahead the opportunity for a permanent musuem will be lost forever. But if a decision to sell is held back, for a while, it will give the local enthusiasts a breathing space to establish a feasibility study to see whether they can pull it off.
Although the Council always needs money the amount here would be relatively small and the local councillors argued persuasively that a museum would attract visitors who would spend their money locally with quite a significant boost to a ‘leisure peninsula’.
As well as being an excellent tourist attraction (there are two restored historic lifeboats ready for display) a museum would also be a permanent tribute to the crews, often stretching through generations from the same local families, who for more than two hundred years have courageously saved lives at sea, sometimes with tragic losses of their own.
This was an occasion when Party politics had no role. Councillors of all parties were united.
