A Teddington Lifeboat RNLI Helm Volunteer has given an insight into how its crew is responding to the COVID19 pandemic.

Jon Chapman of Teddington Lifeboat RNLI said: "We have around 25 crew on our current roster and up to 15 of them may respond at any one time, as typically committed RNLI crew, to the pager going off.

"That is fine in normal circumstances but having that number running into an enclosed area in the lifeboat station blows apart social distancing and presents a material cross-infection risk, so we are cutting the number of crew who are rostered on at any one time to the bare minimum needed to keep our station, with its two D class RNLI lifeboats, operational.

"Training is a huge part of every lifeboat crew member's weekly routine but we have cut back routine training to some very limited water-based work and are setting up online delivery of other aspects of training so crew can access and participate remotely.

"We have put in place a rigorous top to bottom station hygiene routine.

"Crews will be required to take extra protective measures, such as wearing disposable gloves start to finish when these are normally only used in direct contact with casualties."

Mr Chapman also said that Teddington Lifeboat RNLI will carry on being a fully operational lifeboat station, that is able to respond within minutes to incidents in Teddington.