The sea swimmers who meet at Fiveways beach every morning at seven, whatever the weather, have asked the council for a lifeguard during the summer holidays.

The group started with four people and now has more than two hundred members, about sixty of whom swim on a normal weekday. Its organiser, Maggie Thorne, says the beach has become busy with families who have seen the swimmers and followed them in, "without always noticing that the tide comes round the point like a train".

The council says a seasonal lifeguard would cost about £22,000 a year and that it will look at the request in the spring budget.