Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade (TVLB) was called out on Christmas day for only the third time in three decades as it had its third busiest year on record.
The North Tyneside search and rescue team were called out to 145 incidents in 2024, with only 2008 (147) and 2021 (150) busier. December saw an above-average number of callouts, with 11 across the month – including one on Christmas Day.
On December 25, five brigade members were called out to Sunderland to assist Northumbria Police and the Seaham Coastguard Rescue team, before being stood down when the person was brought to safety. Most of the callouts in December were to assist with searches for missing people and people in crisis, though they did help a 21-year-old who had suffered a 15 foot fall after slipping on some steps at Collywell Bay in Seaton Sluice.
A packed month was nothing unusual for the service, after having its busiest summer on record, with 62 callouts in June, July and August – just after its busiest May on record with 18 callouts.
Volunteers arguably faced their most serious incident of the year in April, when its members were part of a huge multi-agency response after a five-month old baby fell from a grass embankment in their pram at Tynemouth Longsands. The baby and their mother were taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary with non-serious injuries.
Peter Lilley, TVLB captain said that it had been a spread out year. He told ChronicleLive: “In previous big years, we’ve had a really big month in the summer – our record is 29 in a month.
Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade captain Peter Lilley.
(Image: Craig Connor/ChronicleLive)
“But this year, it was more spread out and that makes a bit of a difference in terms of how it feels. We’ve been busy but it’s never felt overwhelming.”
Away from the water, the service took on 17 museum volunteers who welcomed 2,803 visitors to the Tynemouth Watch House during weekends and bank holidays during April and August; earning a TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice award for the second consecutive year. Peter continued: “We can’t say how proud we are of how well it went, it was incredibly successful in terms of getting people to visit the museum and we’ll be doing that again in 2025.”
Tynemouth Watch House Museum will open to the public from Good Friday
The museum is not the only thing that volunteers are looking to with excitement in the new year. Plans for a new Volunteer Life Brigade operational base in Tynemouth were green lighted by North Tyneside Council on September 2, with fundraising plans in place to get the base up and running in the coming months.
It is hoped that the move to a more accessible base behind the Blue Reef Aquarium could help with incident response times, though teams and equipment will still operate out of the Watch House on Spanish Battery too.
He said: “We’re only little so putting this base here is a huge things for us, and we need to see how it works and if it’s effective as we think it will be. But we’re really excited about getting that base sorted, that’s out big aim, alongside our continuing water safety work.”
Lastly, Peter thanked both volunteers and the general public for their support over the year. He finished: “North Tyneside keeps the brigade going and we’d like to think that we do acknowledge it, but there’s no harm in saying again that we’re grateful for the help”.