Hornsea Inshore Rescue Launches Ambitious £400,000 Rooftop Terrace Appeal

Hornsea Inshore Rescue, an independent, volunteer-run lifeboat charity, has launched a crowdfunding appeal to raise £400,000 for a new rooftop café and viewing terrace.

This "fantastic venture" is intended to provide vital ongoing funds for the charity through community hospitality and events, as well as offering a welcoming space for visitors, school groups, and supporters.

The proposed development, for which planning permission has already been secured, will be a purpose-built addition to the existing lifeboat station cafe in Hornsea. It will feature an upper terrace for the lifeboat café, complete with a glass balustrade, recycled decking, and furniture.

Sue Hickson, MBE, the station manager for Hornsea Inshore Rescue, says the cafe is an important element of the ongoing fundraising efforts for the rescue charity.

"All the profits, any profits that we make over here, go to the life boat and it's  been vital that we have this income coming in.

We have a very small cafe area here and a small viewing area upstairs, there's a huge rooftop to it as well, an open rooftop.

The area outside is absolutely fantastic and we looked, we thought, do you know, can utilize it as an upper terrace for the Life Boat cafe with  a lovely ballast trade all the way around, glass balustrade, some recycled decking and furniture upstairs a lift, so it's accessible to everybody, and also staircase outside, this will be a marvellous area and a fantastic place for the community and for visitors."

The rooftop terrace is envisioned to be more than just a café; it will serve as a hub for education and community engagement.

Sue Hickson says the project will cost around £400,000 and they are now looking for funding from local people and the local business community.

"We've launched the crowdfunding campaign , but we really want local businesses to try and get behind us.

It's a lot of money. We're looking at around about 400,000.

But we really need to try and get the businesses behind us here because it's a fantastic venture.

We've got the planning permission, so we need to get going. We need to get moving with it.

I'd love to think it'd be up and running for next summer. It may be the summer after.

I know it's a lot of money, but this will make a huge difference.

We have the school visits that come. We get lots of visitors from outside the town that come for fish and chip lunches with us.

And people can actually book the upper terrace if necessary for any group, can come here and hire it.

It'd be wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. 

Sue emphasised that donations made specifically to the café will go to the rooftop project, while donations to the lifeboat go directly to the lifeboat charity, maintaining separate funding streams.

"If people donate to the lifeboat, it goes to the lifeboat. If people donate to the cafe, it goes to the rooftop cafe. So it's totally separate.

All the profits go over to the lifeboat, and that's why. You know it, this is just would be fantastic for us because the cafe has helped keep us afloat for many, many years. And it's only small but very popular. It's a little hidden gem.

Everybody that comes thinks it's fantastic. So having the upper deck, I think people are gonna absolutely love it. 

Sue highlighted the rooftop cafe's potential for school visits with it's amazing views of the local area.

"When you look from here, say it's a school visit, for example. The view today is absolutely splendid. You can look across the flare, you can see the white chocolates, you can look to the south and see the muddy cliffs and the coastal erosion. You can see the wind farms out there.

There's all the groins, the school children out here now doing geography. Looking at how the sand's moving away, there's so much to see from up here. And again on the education side. It's marvellous for schools and other visitors. "

Hornsea Inshore Rescue underscores that every call-out answered and every life saved by their volunteers is made possible by public support.

They urge individuals who believe in "the importance of a safe coastline and a strong local lifeboat service" to consider supporting the appeal, asserting that "every donation, no matter the size, brings us one step closer".

The crowd funding appeal can be found at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hornsea-rescue-rooftop-terrace

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