Working for the Swanage Community

We welcomed Gary to our meeting this week, to talk to us about Swanage Community Housing, a local organisation which plans to provide permanently affordable housing for local residents and key workers.

The group is part of Swanage Community Land Trust, a not for profit charity and Community Benefit Society set up to benefit the Swanage community.

Gary explained the specific issues associated with living in our area - expensive properties but generally lower salaries. Key workers in particular are heavily impacted by the higher cost of living.

It is hoped that delivery of this vision wil be achieved via the acquisition of land, building with a partner Housing Association and implementation of a robust local allocations policy. 

Gary encouraged all present to become involved with the organisation to help better the lives of those who provide vital services in our area. 

After a short break, Gary then went on to talk about his work with the RNLI Ambassadors. Gary is the Water Safety Officer for Swanage Lifeboat and he ran through the picture of how many launches and lives have been saved nationally before drilling down on the work of Swanage Lifeboat itself.

In the past four years Swanage LIfeboat has launched over 370 times and saved 23 lives, with more than 380 people aided. The majority of incidents involve yaching activities but paddle boarders are increasingly requiring the help of the Swanage Lifeboat.

Gary's role is largely to help influence people to treat the open water with respect, by providing advice and education to all users of the sea. The safety message needs to be spread as widely as possible and this is where Ambassadors can really help. By promoting the key water safety messages to as many people as possible, through as mediums as possible, there is a much greater chance that fewer people will get into trouble.

Gary was recently invited to attend the service in Westminster Abbey to commemorate 200 years of the RNLI, which he was very honoured to do.

On behalf of the group, President Elect Maggie thanked Gary for taking time out to explain just some of the many roles that he takes on, on behalf of our community.