18th December 2015. Seafarers around St Agnes Head will soon be able to sally forth into the waters with more confidence, safe in the knowledge that their local NCI station has them covered on their brand new radar system thanks to a £2,700 donation from the St Austell Brewery Charitable Trust in December.

The existing radar equipment at St Agnes was nearly 25 years old and had reached the end of its effective life. A £1,700 grant from the IBM Community Support Fund and their own fundraising efforts had enabled St Agnes to get part of the way towards purchasing the new equipment. However the donation of the outstanding £2700 from St Austell Brewery came as an unexpected and pleasant surprise, as Station Manager Philip Ashman explained. “We were thrilled to hear from the Brewery that they were happy to make up the shortfall and allow us to purchase this essential equipment. It really does bring us right up to date technology-wise and means we can provide a far more effective, wider watch over those enjoying the waters around our part of the coastline.”

Brewery sales director and Charitable Trust board member Ian Blunt commented, “This is exactly the kind of project that our Trust was set up to support. The NCI at St Agnes Head is an organisation that provides an invaluable service for free to both local people and visitors to our beautiful countryside, so we were delighted to be able to help them to improve this service to make our coastal waters even safer.”

The cheque was presented by the Charitable Trust’s Donations Committee chair Micci Cooper at the Brewery’s Victoria Inn at Threemilestone, which has for many years generously provided a ‘home’ for the St Agnes Head members to hold their regular meetings and training sessions. The new radar equipment should be installed at the St Agnes Head lookout before Christmas, ensuring enhanced cover of the local waters for 2016..