THE Mayor of Chepstow witnessed the hard work of local emergency services first-hand, as a stranded jet skier was rescued during a mayoral visit.

The jet skier and his craft were towed back to base, after volunteers at the Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA) were scrambled during the visit to their headquarters.

Chepstow Mayor Vanessa Badderley-Potter was leading a council delegation at Beachley when the action unfolded.

Cllr Badderley-Potter, who has adopted SARA as her charity of the year, said: “We’d had two trips out on the SARA rescue boat up the Severn and the River Wye to the castle to give us a hands-on idea of what the rescue association does and we were all in the SARA control room when the emergency call came in.

“It was all very exciting. From hearing how SARA operates and the kind of rescues in which it is involved we got to see the real thing in action. A man had become stranded on his jet ski on the Wye and the very boat which we’d been on just a few minutes before was scrambled for the rescue.”

Mark Powell, SARA’s Beachley Station General Manager said: “We were pleased to welcome Chepstow Mayor, Cllr Vanessa Badderly-Potter and other councillors to our headquarters at Beachley to show the kind of thing that we do and to take them out in our rescue craft.

“It was pure coincidence that during the time that they were with us a real incident occurred and we were delighted to be able to demonstrate our procedures, our swift response and the way we tackle such a call out.

“We are thrilled that Vanessa has chosen to support SARA during her year in office. The Association needs to raise between £250,000-£300,000 a year to operate which takes quite a bit of fundraising to achieve.”

SARA is a volunteer search and rescue organisation which supports the emergency services. The 200 SARA volunteers operate Inshore Lifeboats and conduct Search and Rescue operations on land and water, covering a wide area around the River Severn. They are called out over 100 times every year.

SARA operates seven Lifeboat Search and Rescue stations, mainly along the length of the River Severn.

Cllr Badderley-Potter added: “I chose to support SARA for my year in office as mayor as I am aware of the immense amount of work that they do to help keep people safe and also the huge amount of money they need to raise each year to help them to carry out their work.

“I was thrilled when I and fellow councillors were offered a couple of trips with them on the Severn and Wye to get an idea of what they do and the conditions that they have to face on the water.

“I can’t thank them enough for putting this on. I know the other five Chepstow Town councillors who joined me were absolutely fascinated and felt much better informed of what SARA does as a result of our two fantastic trips on the rivers.”