Volunteers are launching a last-ditch bid to save Anstruther’s historic lifeboat station from the wrecking ball.
Bulldozers will raze the 160-year-old shed unless a viable plan to keep it for the community is drawn up.
Locals indicated overwhelming support to maintain the harbour landmark when plans for a new £7 million station were approved in 2020.
However, councillors sanctioned a demolition application to make way for car parking.
But the building has now been thrown a lifeline thanks to the tireless work of a small group of locals.
And it is likely ownership can be transferred to the community – but only if more volunteers urgently come forward to help.
Showers, exhibition and soft play among ideas for old lifeboat station
Former Anstruther Community Council chairman Andy Peddie, and others, worked on a feasibility study for the existing lifeboat station.
Among the ideas mooted is to create an exhibition space for the village’s original lifeboat, the James and Mary Walker.
Public showers and toilets, a harbourmaster’s office, soft play and an arts centre are among the other suggestions.
And an office for Isle of May boat trips, storage for skiffs and a lobster hatchery are also possibilities.
The building is big enough to accommodate several uses together.
But to progress the work, the planning consent would have to be rescinded and a community group established to take over the running of the shed.
Andy said: “We have made great progress but we can’t commit the time to take it to the next stage.”
‘We need people to step up now’
Andy says Fife Council and the RNLI are supportive of the plan.
But he added: “We need people from within the community to step up now and take the project forward.
“Time is very short and unless the people who seemed so passionate about saving the shed come forward to form a new group, the old shed will be demolished on completion of the new one.”
As well as people with time and passion, at least some of those who come forward will need business or trustee experience, says Andy.
The new lifeboat station will be built on a car park to the east of the existing building.
It will house the £2.5m Shannon-class lifeboat which arrived in Anstruther in April.
Anyone interested in helping can contact Andy Peddie for more information.
He can be contacted by email at cornceres@btinternet.com, or by phoning 07977 554 693.
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