MINEHEAD lifeboat station has handed over more than £33,000 to the RNLI after another successful year of fundraising.

It is the second year in a row that the lifeboat station has been able to make a contribution of well over £30,000 towards the institution’s annual running costs of around £145million.

Minehead branch chairman Bryan Stoner has put this down to a combination of the fundraising efforts by the crew and the support of local people.

The lifeboat station’s volunteer crew of 20 men and women took on the burden of raising income in addition to their operational commitments when Minehead’s lifeboat guild folded after many years supporting the work of the RNLI in the town.

In the first year the donations and income amounted to £34,000.

The figure for 2014 was slightly lower, mainly as a result of falling income from the annual raft race. Lifeboat station officials say that situation should be rectified this year when the race becomes the highlight of a two-day music festival.

Bryan Stoner said: “We’ve also decided to drop the traditional fireworks, which were becoming a drain on the event rather than contributing anything to it.

“It’s regrettable in a way, but in any event strict new RNLI rules covering firework displays would have made it extremely unlikely that we should have been able to run one anyway.

“What this means is that each year we’re now covering roughly one-third of the running costs of our own station, which is an enormous achievement.”