HM Coastguard announced its busiest day in four years last week, but teams in west Dorset were only called to one incident.

The emergency service was stretched on July 31 as crews attended more than 300 incidents, the most in one day for more than four years.

However, Lyme Regis Coastguard team and Lyme Regis RNLI lifeboat was not called out to any incidents on that Thursday and West Bay Coastguard attended one, which involved transporting a man with a back injury from East Beach to an ambulance. The day before, however, a lifeguard saved a four-year-old girl from drowning at West Bay.

But it will be a memorable day for many with 329 incidents, 232 callouts for coastguard rescue teams, 129 for lifeboats, 22 for aircraft and three for hovercraft.

Call outs were heaviest in England, along the east and south coast and the north west. The area around Liverpool and the Wirral saw the most reported incidents at 26. The coast along Essex and Kent saw a total of 45 incidents and the coastline between Flamborough and Cromer, 22.

Julie-Anne Wood, duty operations director for HM Coastguard, said: “We completely understand that people want to enjoy the coast. We also know that even the most experienced swimmer, paddleboarder and walker can be caught out by currents and tides respectively. We’re heading into some more good weather and we would really ask you to check and double check the tide times - put a timer warning on a smartphone to remind you - be aware of things like rip currents and make sure you have a means of contacting us if things do go wrong.

“As the figures show, we’ll always respond when someone calls 999 and asks for the coastguard, we’ll always answer distress on VHF and we’ll always do everything we can to rescue those in need. All we ask in return is that you take extra care at the coast - it can be unmerciful to the unwary and even those who know it well.”

However, call outs have increased this year in west Dorset, with teams in Lyme Regis and West Bay, including the Lyme Regis RNLI Lifeboat, and they had a busy weekend last week and earlier this week.

West Bay Coastguard team was tasked to red flares and capsized boat in Abbotsbury and people climbing and digging into East Cliff in West Bay while Lyme Regis Coastguard was called to help find a 74-year-old reported to have lost consciousness on the coast, a teenager with a dislocated knee, a person injured on a boat and a child with a leg injury. Lyme Regis RNLI lifeboat crew were tasked to rescue another lifeboat, reports of three people cut off by the tide, as well as the Abbotsbury incident attended by West Bay Coastguard.