A FLAGSHIP visitor centre for the RNLI fully opened in Dartmouth on Monday.

First to come through the doors and be shown the wealth of information displays and exhibits were Mr and Mrs McAllister from Stebbing, Essex.

They were greeted by Commodore Jake Moores, chairman of the RNLI Dart Lifeboat management group. The new visitor centre on South Embank­ment, the first in the country to be sited away from a lifeboat station, is a pilot project for the charity.

Attractions include a D class lifeboat, originally from Southend. Here children and adults can dress up in operations gear, climb into the lifeboat and watch RNLI rescue footage on the large screen in front of the boat.

Beside the lifeboat are visual and audio displays with information on the D class, the local crew and the wide range of RNLI activities.

Other displays have historical information on famous rescues from the past, including those by Grace Darling and Samuel Popplestone, a local farmer and the first to be awarded the Albert Medal for lifesaving.

The centre will act as an educational resource for local school children who already have strong links with the educational team at the Dart lifeboat station.

A new aim of the RNLI is to halve the number of deaths by drowning over the next nine years.

Communities are being encouraged to produce a local lifesaving plan and an explanation of the challenge will be in the centre.

The retail shop run by volunteers has been open since July. The centre is open daily from 10am until 4pm.

It will close for Christmas on Monday, December 20.