Alliance will fund full time lifesavers on dangerous beaches

Thu Oct 28 1999

The Alliance will treat surf lifesavers as an essential national emergency service and will provide funding for full time life guard services where experience has shown a need for them.

'Surf lifesavers do an excellent job with few resources. We want to increase the presence of surf lifesavers across the country by treating them as a national emergency service rather than only a volunteer group,' Alliance Emergency Services spokesperso n Grant Gillon said.

'The Alliance, in partnership with local government, will fund lifesaving patrols where experience has shown the need for full time life guard services on our beaches.

'Auckland's West Coast beaches are some of the most visited dangerous beaches in the country.

'We would expect an expanded full time life saving patrol would be needed on these beaches given that tragedies such as the one in the weekend are regularly occurring.

'Full time patrols would cost much less than the loss of people on our beaches each year,' Grant Gillon said.

Visit http://www.alliance.org.nz for more information about the Alliance

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