MEMBERS of the public who are looking for a challenge have been encouraged to become volunteer Coastguard officers.

HM Coastguard is now recruiting volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers to join Flint Coastguard Rescue Team.

The teams are made up entirely of specially trained and equipped volunteer officers who are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to respond to a wide range of emergency incidents.

These can include persons in the water, technical rope rescue incidents, mud rescue incidents, search and rescue helicopter operations and vulnerable missing person searches.

Coastguard Rescue Teams also work closely with the other category one emergency services, such as fire and rescue, police and ambulance services, as well as MRTs, RNLI.

A spokesman said: "As a Coastguard Rescue Officer you may be called out at any time of the day or night in all weather conditions and may have to work in hazardous situations and carry out physically demanding tasks.

"If this sounds like something you would be interested in then we want to hear from you. "Full training and equipment is provided and no previous emergency service or maritime experience is required.

"We do require you are aged over 18 years, have a full clean UK driving licence and live within a reasonable distance of our station.

"You also need to be reasonably fit and in good health and will require to take a health and fitness test and meet eyesight and hearing requirements prior to becoming operationally deployable.

"Being part of a Coastguard Rescue Team is a big commitment and requires regular attendance at training sessions and at emergency incidents.

"We are particularly interested in people with good daytime availability, during the course of the standard Monday to Friday working week for both training and call outs.

"If you meet the above criteria and interested in applying, please send an expression of interest via e-mail including your name, age, current address, contact number, current employment status and a bit of information about yourself to: area15@mcga.gov.uk with a subject heading of ‘CG Recruitment EOI’.

"Application closing date February 28, 2021.

"Any late applications will unfortunately not be processed."