LLANDUDNO’s Great Orme is now home to a new life saving coastal lookout station.

It is staffed by unpaid volunteers, who keep an eye out for people at risk around the coast, whether ashore or at sea.

They help to protect lives, by spotting people in difficulty, plotting their location and then reporting directly to HM Coastguard.

Tim Day volunteer watchkeeper and station secretary from Colwyn Bay, said: “I am very excited to be a member of this new team of great people who have come together for the benefit of local residents and visitors. It’s not difficult to watch the coast, but there are real skills to learn in taking bearings of vessels, plotting on charts and using VHF radio. It’s easy, once you know what you’re doing.”

The National Coastwatch Institution’s lookout is situated in the car park of the Rest and be Thankful café, which has a bird’s eye view out to sea and of the coastline.

This summer, it will operate every Saturday and Sunday between 11am and 3pm, and will gradually increase the number of watches as trainees qualify as watchkeepers and as the number of volunteers increases.

During opening hours, everyone is welcome to come to see what is happening and to find out more. The volunteer deputy station manager, Tony Morris, of Llandudno, said; “We are thrilled to have opened on the Great Orme and to be attracting so many visitors and new members. We look forward to opening on even more days of the week once we have more volunteers. We hope we will never see anyone in danger, but we keep our eyes wide open, just in case.”