New rescue hovercraft could be on its way to Weston-super-Mare

Avon Fire and Rescue Service currently has a Firefly hovercraft based in the seaside town’s fire station which it uses to rescue people stuck in the Severn estuary.

Although they have no brakes and can be tricky to handle, hovercrafts can quickly glide across water and mud, making them suitable rescue vehicles for the tidal environment.

But the fire and rescue service’s hovercraft in Weston-super-Mare needs replacing — at a cost of half a million pounds.

At the meeting of Avon Fire Authority to set its budget on February 17, Neil Butters, a councillor on Bath and North East Somerset who sits on the authority questioned the figure.

He said: “That seems quite a lot even for a hovercraft.”

Assistant chief fire officer Richard Welch explained: “That would be the replacement of the current hovercraft, but also we would need a vehicle to carry it. It is currently on a very old vehicle that is no longer really fit for purpose.

“So it’s not just the hovercraft, it’s the vehicle to move it as well — which will need a crane.”

The fire and rescue service will go through a procurement process to replace the vehicle.

The meeting also saw Avon Fire Authority agree a rise in the fire precept, the charge that people in North Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and Bath and North East Somerset have on their council tax which funds the fire service.

Hovercraft can glide seamlessly from the water onto the beach. (Image: Avon Fire & Rescue Service)

Members of the authority were presented with the option to increase this by either £5 annually for a council tax band D household (equivalent to a 6.41 per cent increase) or a 3 per cent increase.

The fire authority’s interim treasurer Kevin Woodward said: “The difference between the two is a million pounds […] so should members decide to go for option two, then we would look to take £1,014,000 out of reserves to fund that.

“But as members will be aware that’s only a short term fix. We would need to look for efficiency savings beyond that to balance future budgets.”

Members voted unanimously in favour of the higher increase.

Richard Eddy, a councillor on Bristol City Council who sits on the council said: “There probably are few members in the sub-region than we who are in favour in low taxation and that’s particularly the case in the cost of living crisis […] but we are talking about preventing risk to life and limb.”

South Gloucestershire councillor Ben Nutland said he did not take the decision lightly but added: “We can only cut so much before we fail in what our basic duty is to protect the public.”

It is not just the hovercraft being replaced. The fire authority’s £12.5m capital programme for the next three years will see £4.9m on replacing and updating its fleet of vehicles, with many more electric vehicles being purchased.

Mr Woodward said: “Members will be aware that the authority has made a commitment to move to a net carbon zero position by 2030 so everything within that program is moving towards that.”

Avon Fire and Rescue Service’s Firefly is not the only hovercraft one to have operated from Weston-super-Mare.

In 1963, a hovercraft ferry briefly took passengers between the Somerset seaside town and Penarth in Wales, but the six-week experiment was never repeated.