here I go again....when will I learn.....!

There has been plenty recently in our national newspapers about the coastguard re-organisation that I commented on some months ago and which drew some interesting comments from people who read what I said. Well, here is an update. Firstly, I try to summarize accurately what the various newspapers have reported in the last week and then I’m going to give my view! But that will be tomorrow night!


The BBC reported under the headline ‘UK coastguard station closure plans 'scaled back' that the government is to drop some of its planned closures around the UK. It’s not known yet which stations will be reprieved and which will close. In addition the consultation period seems to have been extended to allow the House of Commons Transport Committee to complete further assessment of the proposed plans.

If I remember correctly, the original plans were to arrive at just two large national coastguard centres operating at Aberdeen and the Portsmouth-Southampton area; close many but keep a few sub centres operational for just daylight hours only, which I think were Falmouth, Swansea, Liverpool and Stornoway (although it could be Belfast or Shetlands...I’ll do some further research later and confirm which).

The BBC report that the government have denied it is a U turn claiming they

‘are looking again at the best configuration that will allow us to deliver those technological improvements, those working-practice improvements, and we will announce our conclusions to Parliament before the summer recess,"

Phil Hammond Transport Secretary

The BBc also reported that the Public and Commercial Services union commented that the

‘climb-down’ was evidence of what could be achieved by community campaigning'.

Mark Serwotka said to the Beeb

"This is a body blow for the government, which is reeling from the force of public outrage at ill-thought-out plans to slash the life-saving support that coastguards provide.

"It is not yet clear what any new proposals will include and there are still battles to be won to maintain vital local services that our members provide 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We would expect new plans to be subject to proper consultation and negotiation."

Commons Leader Sir George Young told MPs the government was "having another look" at the proposals and would respond before the Commons rose in July.

The Independent had a similar report on Thursday but also drew attention to how the proposals had ‘sparked anger in coastal communities and opposition among some Conservative MPs’.

It also said that the paper understood that Transport Secretary Philip Hammond will now reprieve some of the threatened stations and ‘the Maritime and Coastguard Agency will get one high-tech new national centre to replace the abandoned stations, rather than the two which had been planned’. The paper noted that

‘A Whitehall source said that the Transport Secretary was responding to arguments he has heard during an ongoing consultation process, including warnings that the skills of experienced coastguards would be lost if local centre’s were closed’.

"I can't speculate on the numbers of stations which will be in the final proposals,"

said the source.

"There will be a reduction, but it won't be as large as originally envisaged."

Following reports of Mr. Hammond's change of heart in recent press, a Department for Transport spokesman said:

"We will not comment on speculation about the outcome of our consultation.

"Our proposals are in response to a long-overdue need to bring the way Coastguard rescues are co-ordinated into the 21st century, making this vital rescue service stronger, more resilient and improving its services at the front line.

"This need will not simply go away, but this is a genuine consultation exercise and the Government is committed to taking all points of view into account before deciding how best to proceed."

Apparently Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle called on Mr. Hammond to

"clear up the uncertainty"

facing UK coastguard station saying that

"Britain's coastguards deserve better than this further uncertainty. Instead of putting on hold their reckless plans to axe local coastguard stations, the Tory-led Government should abandon their plans. To close more than half of the UK's coastguard stations in one go, leaving just three offering 24-hour cover, will leave our coastline a more dangerous place."

An interesting piece appeared in the Guardian raising the question of why there hadn’t been so much public outcry about the proposed changes to the MCA as there was over the proposed sell off of our national forests which did elicit a complete government U turn and climb down. I may have misread the Guardian article but I have no idea where they’ve been because it’s been pretty vocal on the MCA cuts around my patch in the SW!



And that basically is what some papers have been reporting in the last few days. Sometime this week I will give my viewpoint on the issue. In the meantime, I welcome the extension to the consultation deadline. I think there has been a huge public outcry and rightly so. However, I am left with the feeling that whilst it is easy to raise a voice in dissent, it is harder to come up with a practical solution that allows all parties in the debate to have a ‘win-win situation.

And yet.......surely if we dissent, isn’t the onus on us to also come up with practical alternative proposals that are credible and allow the government and MCA to meet their needs without compromising ours? I know that there are many individuals who feel like this and are doing their bit and I congratulate them and wish them luck. Despite my reservations about the proposal which I will share sometime this week, I am very conscious that I should at least make some effort to try and think of alternatives or at the very least since I have little specialist knowledge, support those who are trying.

Steve