I respond to you article of April 24, concerning the future of Exmouth s Old Lifeboat Station. I suppose it comes as no surprise that one thought for this wonderful old building is to make it redundant from its original purpose and to turn it into a maritime museum.

I respond to you article of April 24, concerning the future of Exmouth's Old Lifeboat Station. I suppose it comes as no surprise that one thought for this wonderful old building is to make it redundant from its original purpose and to turn it into a maritime museum. In effect, the building will have minimal use to look backwards. I acknowledge that it would have some tourist attraction during the summer but, in the main, we all hope visitors will experience good weather when they visit, to enjoy all the outdoor delights offered by our seafront, and its traders. Considering the minimal amount of use the existing town museum gets, it makes me wonder if the building is not more deserving. Throughout the winter months, the existing one closes completely, I suspect a new one would do so as well. We, at Exmouth Rowing Club, look on this neighbouring building with great want, and need. It would offer the club superior facilities such as the basics of running water and toilets that it currently does not have, and better shelter from the elements during winter training. In fact, during the winter, when public amenities are closed, the members are reliant on the good will of local traders for toilet facilities, for which the club is very grateful. We offer the building the opportunity to continue looking forward in its original use as a boathouse to support the local community and future seafarers through membership of the club. It would be used throughout the full calendar year and, in reality, probably get more use than it does even now. We have no limitation on membership, we welcome all from youth to the grave, so to speak, as long as we can fit people into the boats safely. We have an ever-increasing level of membership that is getting difficult to support through our lack of facilities and believe our members, in particular the Exmouth youth, deserve better. Acquiring this building would go a long way to achieving that.The club has communicated with EDDC, which advised that we are on a list of other interested parties. The club also has the support from The Amateur Rowing Association of Great Britain, so it would be interested to know if there would be any support from the local community for the club's endeavour to acquire the use of this building.Mr Les Norcliffe,Chairman,Exmouth Rowing Club.