By Chris Hardy

A NEW lifeboat station is to be built at Montrose.

The plans have been drawn-up for submission to Angus Council and Montrose Port Authority has agreed to release ground so that it can be built on a favoured quayside site in Wharf Street.

A spokeswoman for the RNLI said that once all the consultations have been completed they hoped to secure planning consent.

“A new station is important and essential,” she said.

The firming up of the proposals follows a coastal review by the RNLI.

Lifeboat secretary John West said he anticipated a percentage of the cost of any new station would come from the community and fund-raising had been started.

“The design of the building will be in keeping with the historic character of the area,” he said.

“The main building will be designed to be flood tolerant. It will include crew areas, showers, toilets, an office, a garage for the inshore lifeboat and a souvenir outlet.

“There will be a steel jetty into the tidal flow of the river with a pontoon at the end where the lifeboat will be permanently berthed and which will ensure access at all times.”

Mr West said the present station at the other end of the north quayside was built in 1988 to coincide with the arrival of the lifeboat Moonbeam. Subsequent development had meant the station was surrounded by commercial activities in a very busy part of the port.

“From being at the end of a cul-de-sac we are now in the middle of a busy complex which has implications for the efficient running of the service and crew safety,” Mr West said.

Mr West said the relocation to Wharf Street would improve the efficiency of the station, make the service more visible and accessible to the public and more a part of the community.

The new station will be built on a section of quayside which once bustled with the shipping and was the focal point for one of Scotland’s main ports at the end of the Middle Ages.

Much of the old Wharf Street quayside has been tidied up and landscaped and the RNLI’s plans may act as a catalyst for removing the old fishermen’s shed that still stands on the old Montrose pier.

Its removal will reveal a pier which local archives first recorded in 1493-94 and which is the believed to be the oldest built structure visible in Montrose.