Greenhill swim rafts

Please find a statement from Weymouth Town Council about Greenhill Beach swim rafts.

The RNLI have informed Weymouth Town Council that the swim rafts are outside of the lifeguard’s primary response area. They create a blind spot for the lifeguards which operate from the beach and therefore pose a risk to members of the public.

The safety of residents and visitors must come first. This means that Weymouth Town Council have no option but to remove its swim rafts in the sea at Greenhill.

A spokesperson for Weymouth Town Council added: “We know that over the years it has become a popular activity for large groups to swim out to the rafts in the summer, so we understand this will be disappointing in the short term. But in order to avoid a potential tragedy from happening in this stretch of the sea at Greenhill, we have no choice but to act on the advice flagged to us by the RNLI.

“Following discussions with relevant partners, the rafts have been removed.”

ENDS

Weymouth Town Council would like to make it clear that the swimming rafts at Greenhill were removed as a direct response to changes made by the RNLI and new information received from them, and for no other reason.

On 10 July 2025 Weymouth Town Council was told by the RNLI that:

“Following some challenges / requests for guidance nationally, in the last couple of days the RNLI has had to develop some guidance for landowners / operators regarding swimming platforms / pontoons /rafts. I know this is pertinent to Greenhill so I wanted to share this with you right away.

“The RNLI consider bathing platforms / pontoons to be outside of the normal operations of a beach or coastal environment. The equipment has more in common with an aqua-park and it may appropriate to align with industry best practice in this regard, such as the RLSS: https://www.rlss.org.uk/aqua-parks.

“The RNLI does have some experience with similar structures and notes that the following non-exhaustive list of issues should be considered by the landowner/operator:

• The platforms/pontoons can present a hazard to navigation and should be positioned with this in mind.

• The platforms/pontoons are an attractant that will encourage bathers to swim out to them, potentially beyond their abilities.

• When placed offshore, there is the potential for swimmers to fail to reach or return from the platforms/pontoons safely; placed closer to shore they are more of an attractant and there is the risk of diving into shallow water.

• The anchoring systems may present the risk of entanglement.

• People may swim or dive under the platforms/pontoons and attempt to surface while still beneath the structure.

• They can become a focal point for anti-social behaviour.

• There will inevitably be blind spots from typical shore-based lifeguard observation points.

• They can distract the lifeguards from other bathing groups that may be their priority.

• The platforms/pontoons remain an attractant 24 hours a day, not just when supervision is available.

“The RNLI would not include a platform / pontoon as part of their primary (red and yellow flagged zone) or secondary areas of operation in any lifeguard beach management plan, it would therefore not be considered as part of the lifeguard’s immediate responsibilities. While lifeguards could and would respond to an incident it would not be appropriate to consider the lifeguards as an integral part of the operator’s risk management plans or risk mitigations. As such, it may be more appropriate to consider additional dedicated pontoon based lifeguard provision, which is outside the current scope of the service the RNLI is able to provide.”

Further, we are sharing these two maps to help people understand the changes made by the RNLI in July. The first is from the RNLI Beach Management Plan for 2024, the second is from the RNLI Beach Management Plan 2025. The Town Council did not request any changes to the provision and the first we knew of this was when the RNLI emailed the plan to Council officers. These changes by the RNLI have significant impacts on the risk management plan for the rafts, which in turn has significant impacts on the Town Council’s ability to insure the activity. Signs are not a way of removing legal Health and Safety requirements. Putting up signs does not remove the Council’s legal responsibilities or stop anyone taking legal action in the event of a tragic accident.

Questions about the RNLI decision should be sent to the RNLI directly.