A vital piece of safety equipment which has been installed to watch over a popular West Cornwall cove will help save lives, according to volunteers at NCI Cape Cornwall.
The £8,000 CCTV camera, which overlooks Priest Cove near St Just, was bought by NCI Cape Cornwall to look into a blind spot behind the watch station.
The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company’s Community Fund donated £3,000 towards the cost of the camera, as part of its commitment to giving something back to the communities it serves.
“This very generous donation means so much to us, we can’t thank the Steamship Company enough,” said Richard Saynor, Station Manager at NCI Cape Cornwall. “It got the whole project off the ground – it would have taken ages to raise that kind of money.
“The camera is vital because from the station, we can’t see anything that happens in the cove. There is no mobile phone signal and the emergency phone has been vandalised, so if anything happens somebody has to run up to the station to tell us. It’s a very vulnerable area. This camera will help save lives.”
The state-of-the-art CCTV camera, which relays pictures back to the station, has been hailed a “vital piece of equipment” which can see all the way to Sennen. It has been discreetly placed high on the cliffs on the southern side of Cape Cornwall.
NCI Cape Cornwall is open from 8am-5pm 365 days a year. It has 35 active members who are all volunteers, and three trainees. NCI is primarily a visual watch organisation, with the main job of volunteers being to watch out for kayaks, swimmers and yachts which don’t have electrical equipment.
Sharon Sandercock, Marketing and Communications Manager for the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group, said: “We are delighted to be able to support this very worthy cause. We introduced the Community Fund for schemes just like this and are pleased the CCTV camera is now up and running for the busy summer holiday season.”
Applications to the Community Fund are open to voluntary groups or charities, schools and education establishments, community clubs or societies, and individuals undertaking not-for-profit projects for the benefit of the wider community.
Full details, eligibility criteria and application forms are available from the Steamship Group’s website.