A volunteer lifeboat service in north Norfolk has been fully reinstated after a lengthy summer suspension.
Sea Palling Independent Lifeboat was indefinitely suspended by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) in June after receiving a series of complaints, allegedly filed by former members of the crew.
The MCA has still not revealed the nature of the complaints to the volunteer lifeboat crew, who returned to service after HM Coastguard conducted an audit at the Beach Road station on August 5.
The MCA originally said the lifeboat would remain offline until an investigation into the complaints had taken place. However, a surge of rescues at Sea Palling beach in June put the organisation under enough pressure to reinstate one of the two lifeboats at the station.
READ MORE: The bells are back in town: Norfolk church's bells restored to their former glory
"We have worked with Sea Palling Independent Lifeboat to agree probationary Declared Facility Status which means HM Coastguard can now task either of the lifeboats,” an MCA spokesperson said.
"HM Coastguard will continue to support progress towards Declared Facility Status for Sea Palling Independent Lifeboat."
The Sea Palling lifeboat is now being paged by Huber Coastguard again.
Mark Skerrett, chairman of Sea Palling Independent Lifeboat, said: “We’re still not aware of what the complaints were, but we believe they were made by old crew.
“It’s a strange situation which no one can believe, but that’s the situation.
“We’re now waiting for the report to come back from the audit to put in writing what needs to change.
“We will have six months to make any changes as part of our probation period.”
READ MORE: Green light for ‘landmark’ project set to ‘decarbonise’ Norfolk
Mr Skerrett said there were several callouts the lifeboat was unable to attend during their suspension.
This included two children and two adults who had to be recued by a fishing boat after getting into difficulty off Sea Palling beach.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here