PADDLEBOARDERS AND SWIMMERS IN PERIL - HAS TIME COME TO CRACK DOWN ON JET-SKI MENACE?

Please,don't come our way! Swimmers look on nervously as a jet-ski prepares to turn

DOES tragedy beckon in  the sea off  Cleethorpes?

It was mid-afternoon anarchy off central beach on New Year’s Day.

Wild swimmers, paddleboarders and jet skiers all vied for their own patch of water  - and there was high risk of a terrible accident.

What is more, if there had been a call-out, the lifeboat’s launch would have been delayed because jet-skiers’ vehicles cars were parked on Brighton Street slipway.

One anxious onlooker commented: "Allowing jet skis to launch where people are bathing or paddleboarding is asking for trouble.

"It's the equivalent of having 750cc Harley Davidsons riding at high speed around a park. 

"Someone could so easily have been maimed or killed."

The risk was compounded by the fact that one of the jet-skis was not fit for purpose - the engine failed at Humberston and the machine had to be towed back, in fast-fading light, to Cleethorpes.

North East Lincolnshire Council has its own beach safety team, but it is  not known if anyone was on duty today.

And to cap it all, the mouth of the Humber Estuary is a Site of Special Scientific Interest where endangered shorebirds, such as knot, bar-tailed godwit, curlew and grey plover,  are supposed to be afforded the highest degree of protection. 

Instead, during a period when they should have been recouping energy by roosting, it was an hour of relentless disturbance.                             

Oh no, one is coming towards us!

Instead, it heads for the shorebird roost 

Stricken with panic, endangered birds take to the air 

The stricken jet-ski is towed home past a paddleboarder

The Grimsby News says: Fortunately, today passed off without incident - but there could have been a disaster. The water was full of bathers whose lives were put at risk by the presence of at least three jet-skis, one of which was not sea-worthy. No one wants to be a spoilsport, but safety is paramount. A ban should be imposed on these powerful machines being launched from Brighton Street slipway, especially when the water is bustling with paddleboarders and swimmers.