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Solent Sea Rescue Organisation, based at Lepe Country Park, set to lose £49,000 Hampshire County Council funding




A NEW Forest-based independent lifeboat rescue charity could lose nearly £50,000 in annual county council funding.

Solent Sea Rescue Organisation (SSRO), based out of Lepe Country Park, could lose the cash as part of a savings proposal which the People and Organisations Department is putting to the cabinet for approval.

The department’s 2025/26 budget will be reduced from the previous year, leaving a total budget of £14.7m.

Solent Rescue is one of eight independent lifeboats who make up the Solent Sea Rescue Organisation
Solent Rescue is one of eight independent lifeboats who make up the Solent Sea Rescue Organisation

SSRO is a charitable organisation founded in 1978 set up to save lives on the foreshore of the Solent and on the beaches of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

It was set up to coordinate grant funding by maritime local authorities across the Solent of different lifeboats.

The SSRO receives financial contributions from five local authorities: Hampshire County, New Forest District, Fareham Borough, Gosport Borough , and Isle of Wight County councils.

The county council provides an annual contribution of £49,000, which is used to cover the cost of marine insurance for the seven independent lifeboat organisations which make up the charity.

The county council proposes to stop the provision of the £49,000 from 2026/27.

Cllr Stephen Philpott raised concerns over the proposal and asked whether withdrawing funding from an organisation whose purpose is to save lives and keep people safe is “a sensible thing to do”.

Director of people and organisations, Jac Broughton, said that since the council is moving towards “core purpose” services, the administration does not have the obligation to deliver that service and fund the charity.

Cllr Zoe Huggins, executive member for Hampshire 2050, acknowledged the organisation’s valuable contributions to the community, but she also emphasised that the organisation had effectively planned and budgeted for a sustainable future well in advance.

She added: “The charity has indicated to the council that if the funding stops, the insurance cost could potentially be absorbed across the charities themselves.”

Cllr Jonathan Glen said: “We have to be consistent in our approach. We’ve given up on non-statutory duties all over the county council, and we’re now talking about very non-statutory duties, and they have to be the first to go before we start reducing our statutory duties.

“So there you go, it’s inevitable.”

The council leader, Cllr Nick Adams-King, said that despite the organisation doing “brilliant work” providing support to rescue organisations, both the air ambulance and the lifeboats, he knows it “is a big issue for our colleagues in Gosport, particularly”.

“The constituent organisations do have a significant amount of reserves. We are using the last of our available reserves next year to cover our budget, so Jonathan is absolutely correct. We look at everything; if you think about what we do, rescue is not part of our corps.

“It’s not something that we have to do, but I do hear the concerns of our colleagues in Gosport, and I think continuing a conversation around that is important, but it shouldn’t stop us from being clear about the reason why we need to remove this from the budget in a year, 2026/27, rather than now.”

Following the executive member for Hampshire 2050’s approval, the programme recommendations will now be considered by the cabinet on Tuesday 4th February, before the full county council makes a final decision on the overall budget for 2025/26 on Thursday 13th February.



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