TWO lifeboatmen returned to shore after a battling stormy

seas on a lifesaving mission to find their cars had been

slapped with parking tickets.

The volunteer crew members at Fowey were called out to find

a father and son who failed to returned home after a fishing

trip.

The pair were eventually discovered, huddled and

hypothermic, on an inaccessible beach at Gorran Haven, where

they had used tips from survival expert Ray Mears to make it

through the night.

Decorator John Burns, 38, who was with his 20-year-old son

Bradley, said afterwards: "We are lucky to be alive."

The men were just a few minutes in to their mackerel fishing

trip off the Cornish coast when their 6ft inflatable had engine

trouble and eventually overturned.

The pair, who set out from Gorran Haven on Monday evening,

were wet through when they made it ashore to a nearby beach

surrounded by cliffs.

"We tried to climb the cliffs, but it was too dangerous,"

said Mr Burns, from St Austell.

"We had been watching a lot of Ray Mears, so we collected

all firewood we could and built a fire. We needed to get warm

as quickly as possible," he said.

After the fire went out at around 2am, he and his son

huddled together for warmth, and as storms and rain lashed the

coast they crouched under the upturned dinghy for shelter."

Mr Burns's wife Karen expected the pair home by midnight,

and she called Brixham Coastguard at 6am when they had not

turned up.

The were located just over two hours later by Mevagissey

Coastguard Rescue Team, who spotted the pair on the beach, and

they were taken off by Fowey Inshore Lifeboat and transferred

to the waiting ambulance where they were treated for

hypothermia.

But when Fowey crew members returned to base after 9am, two

volunteers found they had been handed parking tickets, despite

leaving official signs on their car explaining they were on a

shout.

That cut no ice with a Restormel Borough Council parking

warden – who even ignored pleas from local residents. "He was

just a jobsworth," one local resident told the WMN.

"People were coming out of their homes and saying that the

cars belonged to crew from the RNLI.

"They were saying that the crewmen were out on a shout and

could be saving someone's life."

The narrow streets of Fowey are notoriously difficult to

navigate in high season when just one badly parked car can

bring the entire town to a standstill.

The RNLI crew members had been called out just after 7am and

it is understood that their route to the boathouse and their

usual car parking spots was blocked by a bin lorry. In order to

answer the shout quickly, the two volunteers parked at Caffa

Mill car park – leaving their RNLI badges clearly

displayed.

Sam Ellis, Fowey's RNLI volunteer lifeboat press officer,

confirmed that two crewmen had received parking tickets. She

said an appeal had been made: "We have appealed and we are now

waiting for further information."

Parking in Restormel is controlled by the borough council on

behalf of Cornwall County Council.

A spokeswoman for the latter confirmed that tickets had been

given to two cars in Fowey which were displaying Lifeboat crew

placards.

However, she said the RNLI and county council had agreed a

procedure for dealing with such cases.

This means that cars would be issued with an enforcement

notice, but then senior lifeboat officers submit a special form

to the council which then cancels the ticket.