A COMMUNITY-BASED group carrying out a feasibility study into setting up an inshore rescue service for Furness following a double drowning is to receive help from Ulverston Town Council to get financial backing.

The group was formed last month after the council called for a multi-agency meeting to discuss issues arising from the tragedy in January, in which Dalton father Stewart Rushton, 51, and his son, Adam, nine, drowned off Bardsea.

Coun Jim Prosser was the brainchild behind the meeting, as he wanted to see if any action could be taken along the stretch between Greenodd and Bardsea after the pair, who had set out for a day's fishing, drowned.

The father and son became disorientated in heavy fog as the tide came in and rescuers were unable to find them.

Two groups were formed at the meeting on March 7, one to carry out a feasibility study into a new rescue base and boat.

If it goes ahead it will be planned along similar lines to the Duddon Inshore Rescue Team at Askam-in-Furness, which was launched after a drowning accident in 1969.

The other group is to look into the possibility of getting extra safety measures installed, which could include navigational poles in the sea, access points for safety vehicles along the shore and more lifebelts and warning signs around the bay.

This week, Ulverston Town Council agreed it would not be directly involved with the community-based group but that it would try to get funding from Ulverston 2000+ to pay for a secretary to take minutes at the meetings.

Members also agreed they would ask Ulverston 2000+ for funding to cover the cost of hiring a hall for the meetings during the first three or four months.