Coast Guard Modernising 'Raises Concerns'

The Labour party has said the plans to modernise the Coastguard raise "serious concerns" following their publication on Tuesday.

The proposals, which were announced for consultation in July, were given the go ahead by Shipping Minister Mike Penning this week, and will make the Coastguard "better coordinated" and "more resilient", according to the Government.

The plans will modernise how rescues are coordinated and do not affect the services which go out to perform rescues. A nationally networked system of Coastguard coordination centres will also be created comprising of one Maritime Operations Centre, to be established in Fareham, Hants, with a back-up facility at Dover and eight Coastguard Centres, all operated on a 24 hour basis, located at Falmouth, Milford Haven, Holyhead, Belfast, Stornoway, Shetland, Aberdeen and Humber. The station at London is also retained.

Mike Penning said: "After many years of uncertainty, these reforms provide a clear plan for the future of Her Majesty's Coastguard. They will deliver a resilient and fully networked national rescue coordination service. They will make much better use of the talents and skills of our Coastguards and will provide more interesting and rewarding work with better pay."

Under the plans the Coastguard co-ordination centres at Forth, Clyde, Great Yarmouth, Liverpool, Thames, Swansea, Brixham and Portland will close progressively by 31 March 2015. The centre at Solent will be replaced by the new Maritime Operations Centre.

Responding to the closures, however, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Maria Eagle said the decision to close "nearly half" of the UK's Coastguard had nothing to do with improving safety but were the direct consequence of cutting the transport budget.

"The Government is right to have reversed their bizarre plan for coastguard stations to operate in daylight hours only and agree to retain a greater number of stations all operating 24 hours a day. Yet the closure of so many stations raises serious concerns about the inevitable loss of local knowledge.

"The decision to end funding for the Emergency Towing Vessels that were a clear recommendation of Lord Donaldson’s inquiry following the Braer disaster and the MoD’s decision to leave the country without maritime surveillance capability from 2015 risks a massive capability gap which can only compound the risks to safety at sea from the closure of coastguard stations."

The Government said the currently operations were coordinated from 19 dispersed centres with no network of national integration meaning there was "limited resilience" in the event of high demand or technical problems.

(DW)