20th JULY 2017. The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company have donated £3,000 towards the cost of a vital piece of safety equipment for NCI Cape Cornwall.
The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company’s Community Fund made the donation towards the cost of a CCTV camera to overlook the popular tourist spot at Priest Cove near St Just. The camera, bought by NCI Cape Cornwall to observe a blind spot behind the watch station, will help save lives, according to volunteers at NCI Cape Cornwall. Priest Cove is busy all year round, being used by both local fishermen and visitors, and before the installation of the camera, watchkeepers had to climb over the cliff to see into the cove, placing them in danger. The installation of the new camera will improve safety for both the users of the cove and the watchkeepers.
“This very generous donation means so much to us, we can’t thank the Steamship Company enough,” said Richard Saynor, Station Manager at NCI Cape Cornwall. “It got the whole project off the ground – it would have taken ages to raise that kind of money. The camera is vital because from the station, we can’t see anything that happens in the cove. There is no mobile phone signal and the emergency phone has been vandalised, so if anything happens somebody has to run up to the station to tell us. It’s a very vulnerable area. This camera will help save lives”.
The state-of-the-art CCTV camera, which relays pictures back to the station, has been hailed a “vital piece of equipment” which can see all the way to Sennen. It has been discreetly placed high on the cliffs on the southern side of Cape Cornwall.
Sharon Sandercock, Marketing and Communications Manager for the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group, said: “We are delighted to be able to support this very worthy cause. We introduced the Community Fund for schemes just like this as part of our commitment to giving something back to the communities we serve and we are pleased the CCTV camera is now up and running for the busy summer holiday season”.
The project was made a reality by NCI Technologies, based in Penryn, who advised on the best type of camera and most suitable location for installation. NCI Technologies then worked closely with the Cape Cornwall volunteers to carry out the installation of the camera,within budget and on time despite the difficulty in accessing the sites location. With the instillation of the new CCTV camera, the watchkeepers are now able to clearly see into the cove. Richard Saynor, station manager at Cape Cornwall, commented “NCI Technologies have been very helpful and supportive of our aim to improve coastal safety. They carried out the installation efficiently, overcoming the difficult local conditions and the system that has been installed has a very high-quality image and is easy for the watchkeepers to operate”.
The photograph (courtesy of The Cornishman shows some of the Cape Cornwall team at the watch station (Jonathan Rothwell, Peter Munday, Elsie Ash, Phil Oldfield, Hugh Thomas and Station Manager Richard Saynor)