THE BROTHER of Callum Baker-Osborne made an emotive speech during a protest to improve safety at Rockley Point beach in Poole.

Callum’s family travelled down from Coventry at the weekend to attend the protest at Rockley Park, where several incidents of swimmers being pulled into trouble by rip tides have been reported.

In July, Callum Baker-Osborne and members of his family were caught in currents in the water off the beach. The brave 18-year-old saved the life of his niece, Aurora, but drowned himself.

At the protest, Callum’s twin brother said: “For all the people who have suffered pain like ours, just speak up, the more people speak up, the more help we’ll get.

“Signs should be put up and leaflets in the caravans.

“If we knew how much people have suffered, we wouldn’t have gone on this beach, so I think it’s time for people to speak up, not for my family but for everyone.

“We don’t want anyone else to suffer, we’ve got support and if you need support then we’re here for you as well, it’s time to speak up and it’s time to make a change.”

The protest was organised by local resident Pauline Ferrick-Squibb, who rescued her then eight-year-old daughter in 2018 when she was pulled out by a rip tide after paddling in “shin deep water”.

She said: “A few weeks after the incident that devastated Callum’s family, a father from North London said that he feared for his son’s lives when they were pulled into the rip tide. Another life or more nearly lost to the frighteningly similar incident that caused Callum’s death.”

Hayley Read, another local at the event, who said she had been forced to rescue several children from the water at the point, said: “I would say to people to get their toes wet, have a paddle and enjoy the sand and the park, but don’t go in and swim.

“The RNLI won’t lifeguard it because it’s not listed as a place to swim by them and they will never recommend swimming here.”

Also at the protest was Councillor Vikki Slade, who said a petition to BCP Council was being organised.

“The current situation here isn’t okay, this is somewhere that local people, visitors and park users all come to and they need to know it’s not a safe place to swim, the signage here is totally inadequate.

“The idea that we can have a world class resort without it being a safe resort doesn’t make any sense.

“We’ve just agreed to set up a petition in time for the sea front strategy meeting on Wednesday and it will be a petition people can sign in paper or online.

“As soon as we’ve got the link, well present that to the council to get them to use any levers they can to make this place safe.

“We cannot have another tragedy like what happened to Callum, we have to do this for his memory.”

Mayor of Poole and councillor for Hamworthy Julie Bagwell said: “We’ve spoken to the family and the organisers and we want simple things, we don’t want lots of money spent, we just want signage everywhere and we want life buoys and life belts in the water.

“On a spring tide you haven’t got a hope, it’s a danger and the people that don’t live here are at a disadvantage.

“We don’t want to stop people coming to Rockley and using this beach, but we have to make it safe and make people aware of the dangers of the water here.

“Sometimes the system doesn’t work very fast and yes we want a health and safety review on this beach but actually we need to get the signage and all the simple things in place first.

“The review can come after but it’s been too long since we lost Callum, and then we had the other incident the other day.

“How many more incidents do we have before somebody acknowledges that there’s a problem there.”

The land at Rockley Point beach is leased from BCP Council and operated by Haven, which owns the adjacent holiday park.