THE founder of York Rescue Boat, Dave Benson, has stepped down, but the work of the charity continues.

Volunteers for the York Rescue Boat have given almost 9,000 hours since its launch last year, and the team, which who carried out exercises in the River Foss on Wednesday, now includes 26 members who are fully qualified to patrol the River Ouse on busy nights and major events, and assist in rescues and mental health situations.

Mark Mullen is lead coxswain and procurement officer for the charity, and said Mr Benson's work, will be continued by almost 50 volunteers.

Mr Mullen said: "York Rescue Boat was Dave's vision and we're just taking that forward. We have now got a team of seven taking each aspect that needs doing. He's stepped down to spend more time with his family, and wishes us all the best for the future. We wish him the best too.

"I've been with YRB since the beginning and it's grown bigger than we could ever have hoped, with a lot of support from a lot of lovely people along the way. Our volunteers have put in something like 9,000 hours between them which is incredible."

Members of the team were called into action during the Christmas and New Year floods in Cumbria, West Yorkshire and York, and Mr Mullen said the team had worked tirelessly for much of the last year since launching during the 2015 Tour de Yorkshire.

He said: "I left on Boxing Day for the floods and got back on New Year's Eve. It doesn't really feel like we've had a break in the last year. We had a chance to catch our breath in January but back on with normal Fridays and Saturdays as soon as the river went back down a bit.

"Since January, we've had lowland search training in Worcestershire on search techniques for missing people, our flood team found that was necessary, and we're training up more people on that in the future and trying to get more people qualified to work on jobs like that. We've also had ongoing flood refresher training, including on Wednesday."

Mr Mullen said the team had seen the city get busier in recent weeks, and as the weather improves and more people visit York, they expect to be busier still.

He said: "Last weekend felt like the busiest of the year out in town. We've been out Fridays and Saturday but it's been a bit quieter but last weekend was really busy. The races are coming up and we'll be out with that. Just need people to look after themselves, look out for the river and still have fun.

"We've just been operational for a year, we started on the Tour de Yorkshire last year and want to thank everyone who helped us along the way. We've had a lot of support from the public, the fire brigade, police and council, and thank them and everyone else who helped out."