THE RNLI aims to save £3.7million in donations every year by building and maintaining its all-weather lifeboats at its Poole headquarters.
The charity is to apply for planning permission from Borough of Poole to build an £11.2m workshop on its land next to Holes Bay, creating 90 new jobs.
RNLI trustees have given their approval for the scheme, which will save the charity from paying contractors profits and overheads, and should pay for itself in less than 10-years.
“We need to make the best use of donations we receive and so I’ve been leading a continuous improvement programme at the RNLI for the last two years,” said chief executive, Paul Boissier.
“We’ve made sufficient efficiency savings, some of which can now be used to allow us to build our own lifeboats – we’d be our own customer and we have a water-tight order book.
“We’ve been successfully producing our own inshore lifeboats at an RNLI facility on the Isle of Wight for decades, and we have no plans to change this.
“To pay for the new facility, we would use £6.2m of our efficiency savings and aim to fundraise for the remaining £5m through trusts and corporate partnerships.”
In the long term, saving £3.7m of donors’ money every year was a higher return on investment than could be expected elsewhere, equivalent to the cost of two-and-a-half new Shannon class all-weather lifeboats, he said.
The charity already builds its own inshore lifeboats, designs the all-weather lifeboats and produces the hulls in house and maintains them at Poole. This project is a logical next step for the charity to take, and we would continue to ensure our lifeboats are the best they can be to protect our volunteer crews and bring them home safely when saving others at sea,”hesaid. Subject to planning approval, work could start at the site, next to the Lifeboat College in 2013.
By spring 2014 all-weather lifeboat refit and overhaul could be in operation with all-weather lifeboat hull and deck moulding moving across from RNLI SAR Composites at Lymington by the year 2019.
Jobs at Poole will be offered to those working at the Lymington site and the apprentice scheme will be extended.
The announcement comes just a week after the RNLI announced Poole is to lose its all-weather lifeboat in 2015 to be replaced with a D class inshore lifeboat.
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