THE Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA) held an open day on Sunday 24th May at the Beachley Lifeboat Station and Rescue Training Centre.

The event had a number of pieces of rescue equipment on display, along with displays and competitions.

Swiftandbold, SARA's Inshore Lifeboat, was on show which serves the Severn Estuary from Newport to Gloucester. Beachley's largest vessel, the Joe Harris, was also completing demonstration runs, before it's scheduled replacement later this year at a cost of approximately £220,000.

On-land equipment was also available to see which are used in specific casualty, rescue, mountain, mud, ice and lowland searches, while displays were held by the police, fire and rescue emergency services.

The newest addition to SARA's ambulance fleet was present at Beachley – an Incident Support Vehicle – on show for the first time. Mobile 20, a Land Rover Discovery Sport on loan from Jaguar Land Rover through the Prince's Countryside Fund, was on display too having recently been presented to the Beachley station.

Mervyn Fleming, SARA's western region commander and chairman of the Beachley Lifeboat and Rescue Centre, said: "SARA has been the lifeboat service on the Severn Estuary for over forty years; from small beginnings at Tutshill near Chepstow SARA has grown into one of the largest multi-disciplined rescue agencies in the UK with rescue stations at Chepstow, Sharpness, Kidderminster, Tewkesbury and Newport (South Wales).

"Not only serving the estuary and it's tributary rivers as the designated lifeboat service, SARA is also the mountain and land-search centre for the area with highly trained flood-rescue teams capable of responding to national disaster."

Photos courtesy of Dev Toolbox Photography