RNLI pull out of Birnbeck Pier project, putting historic restoration at risk

This morning (Friday 27 June), the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) informed North Somerset Council they no longer wish to be involved in the delivery of the project to restore Birnbeck Pier in Weston-super-Mare. 

This breaks the collaboration that the RNLI entered into with North Somerset Council and leaves the phase of work to restore the pier structure in jeopardy, with a £5m shortfall which the RNLI had previously agreed to fund.

North Somerset Council continues to have the full support of its other funding partners. It worked hard to secure over £20m in external funding to support the project which includes £10.2m from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, £5.4m from the UK government (former Levelling Up Fund), £3.55m from National Heritage Memorial Fund (through the UK government’s Cultural Assets Fund) and £1m from Historic England.

The news from the RNLI today comes just days in advance of a North Somerset Council full council meeting on Tuesday 8 July where councillors were being asked to award the contract for delivery of the pier structure restoration to start later this year. As a direct result of the RNLI decision, this report being published on Monday, will have to be withdrawn at the meeting, leading to delays in contract award.

Image - Birnbeck Pier

Councillor Mike Bell, Leader of North Somerset Council, said: “This is a shocking decision that breaks faith with residents, volunteers and everyone who has worked so hard to secure a future for Birnbeck Pier. We feel very let down, as I’m sure many residents will too. For the RNLI, one of our critical partners in this project, to pull their support just days before we were looking to award the contract to restore the Birnbeck Pier structure feels like a real abdication of responsibility to our community.

Just 24 hours ago, Birnbeck Pier’s future was bright with funding in place, all partners on board, a clear funding plan, and robust independent evidence confirming this project is viable, deliverable, and set to bring lasting economic and social benefits to Westons-super-Mare and our region.  

The RNLI has long said that Birnbeck Island is the safest place from which to launch lifeboats and save lives. Yet today’s decision risks undermining that purpose. After years of collaboration and planning, it is hard to understand why the RNLI would choose to walk away at this critical moment.

Despite challenges created by the RNLI’s decision, I want to reassure residents that the council, along with our funding partners – The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the UK government, National Heritage Memorial Fund and Historic England – and the Birnbeck Regeneration Trust – remain committed to saving Birnbeck Pier. We will work with determination to find solutions and close this funding gap so the project can move forward.

Birnbeck Pier is a treasured part of our shared heritage and a symbol of Weston’s past and future. In just two years since taking ownership of the pier, we have made more progress than in the past three decades in private hands. We will not allow this progress to stall.

Importantly, this decision does not affect the delivery of other phases of the wider project, and work on the landside buildings will begin next month.”

North Somerset Council jointly with the RNLI, the Heritage Fund and the Birnbeck Regeneration Trust, recently commissioned an independent Outline Business Case (OBC) for the pier, in line with HM Treasury Green Book standards. This had a specific focus on the financial viability of operational arrangements and was carried out by AMION, independent nationally recognised experts in economic, financial and management specialising in the heritage and public sectors. 

AMION was selected by the project partners through a competitive tender.  The OBC concluded that:

‘Overall there is strong evidence that the Birnbeck Pier project is viable and deliverable and will realise long-term economic and wider benefits for Weston-super-Mare and the region. It will also protect a highly valuable, nationally significant heritage asset and enable the RNLI to use Birnbeck Island to optimise its ability to save lives on this busy part of the British coast’.

The works to restore the pier were recently tendered. The careful and detailed evaluation of the tenders was undertaken by a team of specialists from the council, alongside the RNLI and other funding partners. The technical advisors identified a good quality bid, which was the subject of the planned decision to appoint at council on Tuesday 8 July.

The RNLI in Weston was founded in 1882. They were forced to leave Birnbeck in 2014 after the pier was deemed too dangerous. The RNLI’s Weston station is the 13th busiest in the UK having an average of 50 launches and saving five lives each year. To project those figures forward over the next 25-years suggests that the station would launch 1,210 times, assist 327 people and save 118 peoples’ lives.

After many years of investigation of over 20 alternative sites in and around Weston, Birnbeck Island offered the RNLI the safest and most effective place for the volunteer RNLI crew to launch and recover their lifeboats. The RNLI has also always stated it is the only place that the volunteers can safely provide a lifesaving service for the town at all stages of tide.

The RNLI is currently operating from a temporary station by Marine Lake, which is a far less effective location due to the up to 1km distance to the water at low tide.

This location was only ever meant for to be used until the RNLI’s new lifeboat station was realised on Birnbeck Island. The RNLI lease an area of the plaza from the council under an agreement which ends in November 2027.

Three planning applications for the delivery of different stages of the project are also currently being determined by North Somerset Council’s planning team. Two of these applications were submitted by Studio Four Architects on behalf of the RNLI to cover the repair and restoration of the Grade II* Listed pier structure – which will be delivered by the council – and the creation of a new RNLI lifeboat station on Birnbeck Island.

The third application was submitted by Haverstock, the council’s appointed architect for the project for a future phase of restoration and renovation work subject to an additional £7m funding bid from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, due to be determined later this year.

To find out more about the Birnbeck Pier project, visit www.n-somerset.gov.uk/BirnbeckPierProject.