Callout Club

Firstly some history: - Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade (TVLB) was the first ever volunteer rescue company in the UK formed in 1864, following a wreck where 32 people were seen to drown by a helpless crowd. Determined to do something about this a trained body of men was formed to be able "to render aid in times of maritime emergency" and TVLB was the result. With governmental approval the concept spread around the coastline eventually producing the Auxiliary Coast Guard service we have in the UK today.
Today, over 142 years later, TVLB is still in existence and still providing the service, it is now however in the form of a declared facility to HM Coastguard, Northumbria Police, Northumbria Fire and Rescue Service, and Northumbria Ambulance Service. TVLB provides the Coastguard presence at incidents on the coastline in the local area, Seaton Sluice in the North to Tynemouth in the South and inland on the north banks of the River Tyne to Newcastle.

As TVLB is currently one of the busiest rescue companies within the East Sector, the whole of the East side of England from the Scottish borders to the South coast, we need a reliable vehicle. To facilitate this for the future TVLB have just created a fund to purchase a new Land Rover in the coming years.

This Callout Club is a group of mostly local companies that have agreed to sponsor TVLB an amount for each callout we undertake in the calendar year of 2007; the amount could be anything from £1 per callout upwards. The callouts we undertake are all generated by the public and other emergency services requesting help on the coast. TVLB are trying to use the service we provide to generate the monies required to keep us secure operationally into the future.

A guide to your commitment to the callout club, TVLB currently averages about 105 callouts per calendar year, therefore if your company sponsors us for £1 per callout the cost over the year would be £105 and so on depending on the amount. If we manage to get 100 companies sponsoring us for £1 per callout at 100 callouts per year we accumulate £10 000 per year which allows us to purchase a new Land Rover in 3 years (Yes, a new Land Rover costs about £30 000 with all the attachments we need).

As a Member of the Callout Club we would provide you with a framed certificate of membership, and every quarter (3 monthly) we would send you a list of the callouts we had undertaken, keeping you fully up to date on our activities. You would also have the knowledge that you are helping to save lives on the coast by supporting this registered charity and the work we undertake.

Thank You in advance for your participation in TVLB's Callout Club.

TVLB provide the following full range of services required by HM Coastguard:

• Search for persons lost on the coast or coastal areas.
• Rescue of injured persons on the coast or coastal areas.
• Cliff rescue of persons stuck on cliffs or provision of paramedic access to a scene.
• Safety cover for helicopter landing at local hospitals.
• Detail data collection of marine related incidents.
• Support to other Rescue organisations on the coast, lifeboats, police, fire brigade and ambulance.
• Investigations of false alarms both malicious and with good intent.
• TVLB is the only company with in the UK that can provide a breeches buoy rescue; this is rescue from a wrecked vessel using a continuous rope and pulley system.
• Plus displays, general patrols and Public Relations on behalf of HMCG.
  
  

A full list of TVLB Callout since 2001 are available by clicking here.

The total for the past six years is 631 Initial response team callouts and 47 full team callouts, an active captain controlled each of these callouts, the callouts include 94 helicopter landings, 54 searches for missing persons (from small children to nonagenarians), 88 rescues of persons injured or in danger (including several significant incidents were persons have fallen from cliffs or piers and suffered major injuries) and 241 collection of information or supporting other organisations and 109 false alarms (usually with good intent but some times malicious).

The callout rate of 105 per year, averages at about 2 per week, and can take from just a few minutes to several hours, however the calls are never evenly spaced, TVLB has had 7 calls in one day, 22 in a month and none for six weeks.

For further information or any assistance please e-mail calloutclub(at)tvlb(dot)org. We apologise for not adding the @ or dot signs ourselves but due to previous experiences with spammers we ask you to add them yourselves.

To download the application form for the callout club please click here. This file is in Adobe pdf format.

Please send all completed forms to the following address:

The Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade. Registered Charity Number 1093237

© TVLB 2008