Coastguard cutbacks scaled down

The Government has watered down plans to reduce the number of coastguard centres
12 April 2012

The Government has watered down its plans to drastically reduce the number of coastguard centres.

Original proposals envisaged cutting the centres from 19 to nine, with three remaining open 24 hours a day.

But Transport Secretary Philip Hammond announced that 11 centres would remain and they would all be 24-hour operational.

The centres that will carry on are at Falmouth in Cornwall; Milford Haven and Holyhead in Wales; Bangor in Northern Ireland; Shetland, Aberdeen and Stornoway in Scotland; and Humber. There will also be one maritime operations centre covering the Southampton and Portsmouth area which will replace the existing centre at Lee on Solent in Hampshire.

This new operations centre will be backed up by the existing Dover centre which will also be 24-hour operational. A small coastguard centre in London, which was not part of the reorganisation plans, will carry on.

The centres that will be closed - over the period from 2012 to 2014/15 - are at Swansea, Portland in Dorset, Clyde and Forth in Scotland, Liverpool, Great Yarmouth, Brixham in Devon, and Walton on the Naze in Essex.

Labour spokeswoman Maria Eagle said the Government's decision to revise its original plans was a tribute to the coastguards who had campaigned against the closures. But she told Mr Hammond: "However, this announcement means the loss of just under half of all Britain's coastguard stations. That is a devastating blow to those stations which you propose to close - to the coastguards, their families and the communities they serve and in which they are held in such respect."

In the original plan, the Government had proposed two maritime operations centres - one at Southampton/Portsmouth and one at Aberdeen, as well as five sub-centres in addition to Dover.

Under existing arrangements, neighbouring stations are "paired", allowing them to provide back-up for one another when needed. The new announcement, which will be subject to further consultation, means that one station in each pair is retained.

The Public and Commercial Services union said it welcomed "the fact the Government has partially climbed down from its original proposals" but said it would oppose any new plans that would result in safety being compromised.

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