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A REPORT by by a group of all party MPs has said Government plans to close or downgrade coastguard stations around the UK raises "serious safety concerns" and should be withdrawn.
The plans, which include reducing the number of round-the-clock stations from 18 to three, have already come in for serious criticism from fishing and other maritime groups
If the current proposals are implemented the coastguard service would have two nationally networked maritime operations centres, in Aberdeen and the Portsmouth-Southampton area. There would be five sub-centres, operating in daylight hours only, in Falmouth, Humber, and Swansea. Two more sub-centres - in Belfast or Liverpool, and Stornoway or Shetland - will be retained.
But last night the Transport Select Committee condemned the plans which are intended to cut £20 million a year from the agency’s running costs.
Their report says: "It would be unreasonable to draw too heavily on volunteer coastguards for the kind of local knowledge that is currently held by operations room staff, but which would be largely lost under these proposals. There is a risk that excessive demands could diminish the willingness of people to volunteer as a rescue coastguard.”
The committee's chairman, Louise Ellman, said the coastguard proposals were "seriously flawed" and there was little support for them. She also expressed her disappointment that shipping minister Mike Penning had "instructed regular coastguards not to give evidence to the committee".
"We accept there is a need for some modernisation, but the government's proposals for the future of the coastguard service are seriously flawed," added
"We found little support for the current proposals and we have no confidence that the coastguard will in future be able to respond to emergencies at sea as well as they do now, let alone in a more effective way."
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