Coastguard SOS

The Coastguard SOS team is made up of members of the public who have serious concerns for the safety of people when the Coastguard stations closures are implemented, as unfortunately members of the actual Coastguard service are subject to gagging orders and cannot speak – who said this country was democratic?!

We’ve been telling you the good news that Mr Cameron stated in his letter;   “Finally, those centres that are planned for closure will remain open until 2015 in order to ensure that the planned transition to the new arrangements will maximise the retention of local knowledge.”

A very straightforward statement and one that was welcomed by the Coastguard SOS team fighting to keep all the stations open.  Thank goodness the Prime Minister has the sense to make sure the stations will stay open until 2015 at the very least, so that the changeover to a national call centre (see Penning’s Folly), would be smoother and give appropriate time for everything that would be necessary for the hand-overs.

Today, the news from Inverclyde Now gave the news about this, stating -

THE Clyde Coastguard rescue co-ordination centre at Greenock will close later this year as planned, it has been confirmed, despite a letter from the Prime Minister which appeared to say that Coastguard centres ear-marked for closure would stay open for another two years.

Coastguard campaigners received a copy of a letter from Prime Minister David Cameron to a constutuent which stated: “Those centres that are planned for closure will remain open until 2015 in order to ensure that the planned transitions to the new arrangements will maximise the retention of local knowledge.”

Campaigners issued statements saying the centres — including Clyde — had been granted a “reprieve.”

I would like to take issue with the words highlighted in red – the letter did not appear to state; the letter categorically stated that Coastguard centres earmarked for closure would stay open: and also for another two years; the years from 2012 to 2015 are three, unless my fundamental knowledge of mathematics is incorrect!

The page goes on to state -

But the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) insisted there has been no change to the plan and that Clyde Coastguard will shut in December with its work being transferred to the centres in Belfast and Stornoway.

Navy Buildings, Greenock

An MCA spokesman said: “The reform of Coastguard stations will go ahead as planned. The PM has written to his constituent to clarify the matter. (i) 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 Ministry of Defence (MoD) plan to close their base at Clyde [Navy Buildings in Eldon Street] and part of that plan means that the Clyde Coastguard and all its associated equipment must be removed. Staff are already informally aware of the intended closure date of 31 December 2012. (ii) 

“A change team comprising operational staff from Clyde, Belfast and Stornoway is actively managing the technical and operational work required to achieve the decommissioning of Clyde by 31 December 2012. We aim to transfer operational coordination for Clyde’s area to Belfast and Stornoway by 18 December 2012. This will avoid trying to manage technical switchover during the Christmas period.”

(i) The Prime Minister has written to this constituent to clarify the matter – indeed he has, and as said before, he categorically stated the coastguard stations would stay open until 2015.  There has been no other letter received.

(ii) Staff are already informally aware of the intended closure date of 31 December 2012.  And Happy New Year to you too! But seriously, what utter disregard and disrespect for the people in the team working there.

What an awful state of affairs this is.  The Prime Minister makes a statement in black and white and the MCA media team states this is incorrect! A very good question would be,  Who is running this country?

From the first announcement, this MCA plan has been riddled with inconsistencies and errors.  There has been no transparency, no listening to peoples’ concerns and, certainly, no risk and assessment exercises carried out on each particular station.  And, even more importantly, this is despite requests from the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament.  Horrendous ~ you cannot describe rocks and waves to a national call centre, which obviously does not have the local knowledge that is critical to successful rescues.

This is a cost cutting exercise that only benefits the Department of Transport and the elite of the MCA. Shame on them.

Written by Lynne Gray

So Penning’s Folly opens today.

This is the national Maritime Operations Centre.  It started life being commissioned as the National Fire Service Control Centre.  The idea was that anyone dialling 999 and asking for ‘Fire’ got routed to this centre.  Details of the location and nature of the fire would be recorded in Fareham and fire engines would be mustered from the local station.  After some consideration, the fire service said it was not feasible to run the fire service safely from a national centre.  So it was allocated to the Coastguard instead.

Now forgive me, but buildings have names and numbers.  They are on roads that also have names or numbers, as are landmarks like woods, forests and heathland, which can catch fire.  And fires may spread, but the addresses they start at do not move.  Compare that to an emergency on our coast. A holidaymaker on a hired boat sends up a flare and someone dials 999 asking for ‘Coastguard’, being put through to Penning’s Folly in deepest Hampshire.  If the caller is not a visitor, they may know where they are and possibly where the flare came from.  Or maybe not.  And even if the operator in Fareham knows the difference between two similar sounding coastal villages in any part of theUK, could they identify the ‘big rock’ that’s described to them as near where the flare came from?  And bear in mind, the casualty will be constantly moving with tides and currents, while someone inFarehamtries to work out which local team is nearest and – wait for it – co-ordinate the searching at Penning’s Folly!

They say the changes are making the Coastguard service more ‘modern’ and ‘robust’.  True they are developing a new IT system to ensure all the local centres that are left can have access to all incident data.  Assuming the new system works and is delivered on time, this would be a benefit whether you have the 9 centres they propose to keep or the 18 centres they have at the moment.  It doesn’t in itself enable 9 centres to operate as effectively as 18.  It’s NOT as robust to share work between 9 centres compared with 18 – the maths just don’t make that work.  In fact it is exactly half as robust, of course.

The Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament have both said they are unhappy that there has been no risk assessment of the closure of specific centres, and have even offered to contribute to the cost of undertaking the.  After all there is still time, with Swansea not due to close until 2015, for example.  Arrogance wins over common sense, with Penning declaring they’ve done a ‘general’ risk assessment and that’s good enough for him.  Easy to say for a minister whose constituency is landlocked.  But it will be conservative voters as well as others, from Penning’s Hemel Hempstead constituency as well as the rest of the UK, whose lives are being put at real risk by these senseless closures.

Written by Tim Douglas.