MPs unite in battle to save coastguard
A TEAM of Northern Ireland MPs have said they are ready for the fight to retain Ulster’s only coastguard station.
North Down MP Lady Sylvia Hermon, Strangford DUP MP Jim Shannon, East Belfast Alliance MP Naomi Long and South Down SDLP MP Margaret Ritchie met with the Belfast Coastguard yesterday morning and vowed to do all they could to save it from controversial plans to centralise the service.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has published a consultation document which reduces the 18 Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCC) to eight.
While the Belfast station - which is located at Bregenz House in Bangor - is currently manned around the clock every day of the year, at best it will be reduced to daytime hours only – or else it will close and emergency calls from Northern Ireland will be answered in Scotland or England.
In addition to being responsible for all of Northern Ireland’s coastlines from sea to lakes, Bregenz House also takes calls from the west coast of Scotland.
Yet our base is competing against Liverpool for survival.
Of the eight remaining stations, only two will be operating on a 24-hour basis to coordinate rescues – one in Aberdeen and one in the Portsmouth/Southampton area.
The other six will operate in daylight hours only, with the exception of Dover.
The delegation of MPs met with senior members of the Belfast Coastguard yesterday including rescue co-ordination centre manager Richard Newell and a senior civil servant from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
After the meeting, Lady Hermon said that she and the other MPs are gearing up for a fight to retain Bregenz House.
“The meeting was very useful indeed, and ran much longer than anticipated,” she said.
“As a result, we collectively felt much better briefed and are now in an even stronger position to persuade the shipping minister, Mike Penning, that Northern Ireland cannot be the only part of the United Kingdom left without a coastguard centre.
“We know we have a fight on our hands to save Northern Ireland’s last remaining coastguard centre in Bangor, but it’s a fight that has brought together the collective will of the various political parties here.
“Together, we are fighting to win.”
Mr Shannon said that considering last year was the busiest for the local coastguard in four years, there was a significant need for the station to remain.
“The horrific Cork plane crash brought into sharp focus last week the speed with which accidents can happen – Northern Ireland lies under some major flight paths,” he said.
“Additionally, we have the second largest fishing fleet in the UK, a growing leisure industry on our seas and waterways and vital commercial routes. It is essential we are able to keep our coastguard station.
“The speed that good local knowledge can make in a rescue operation can be the difference between life and death.”
Ms Long said the proposals would leave Northern Ireland as the only region of the UK without a full-time coastguard station.
“The Northern Ireland coastguard station also provides a unique role in liaising with the Irish coastguards, and we believe that the expertise and relationships built up over many years in this area could be lost if these proposed changes are adopted by minister Mike Penning,” she said.
Ms Ritchie said people in her constituency – which includes some of Northern Ireland’s busiest fishing ports at Kilkeel and Ardglass – were extremely concerned at the prospect of losing the province’s only coastguard station.
“I have seen first-hand that the people working here have a real passion for their jobs, working part-time on the lifeboat, live saving is at the core of their mission,” she said.
“Local knowledge of operations in stations is fundamental to delivering an efficient service for people here and the same standard simply cannot be delivered from England.”
- The News Letter’s campaign in support of the Belfast Coastguard now has a page on the powerful social networking website, Facebook, which can be found by searching for Save the Belfast Coastguard. You must be a member of Facebook to be able to join the group.
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
