SWANAGE’S new lifeboat station will officially open this month.

An event to open the new boathouse at Peveril Point Road will take place on Saturday, April 29.

A naming ceremony for the station’s all weather lifeboat, George Thomas Lacy, will also be held.

Members of the public are invited to watch the event, and the lifeboat is set to launch after the ceremony.

The Shannon all-weather lifeboat has been moved into the new boathouse several times over the past few months to protect her from severe weather.

The £1.5million craft launched down its new slipway for the first time at the end of November.

The new station includes a crew changing room, a fully-equipped crew training room, mechanics workshop, office space and two separate boat halls.

The cost of the £8.1milllion facility came under the spotlight in the New Year as the initial estimate for the project was just £3.5million when it started in spring 2015.

However, the RNLI said “unforeseeable challenges” and “additional improvements to the original design and infrastructure” had more than doubled its costs.

The event to open the boathouse starts at 11am.