Clyde safety

Clyde Coastguard is one of the busiest coastguard centres in the United Kingdom. The government is saying it will close as part of a reorganisation, which effectively means that it will close at the end of 2012 when the current lease comes to an end.

The new arrangements that the government is proposing, which include new back-up from a new maritime operations centre which will not be in place by then, effectively means there will be a gap in provision for the west coast of Scotland.

I fear that this gap will lead to a high possibility of a failure to provide an acceptable response in emergency situations. The government has not thought through these proposals.

I am asking it to urgently review the proposal to close Clyde, which I believe has been made out of convenience rather than for operational reasons, given the fact that it wants to close coastguard stations and the lease for Clyde is coming to an end.

I am deeply fearful that this gap in provision will risk safety and that in the long term Belfast station, which is much smaller than Clyde and does not have the detailed local knowledge of the area, will simply be unable to cover Clyde’s coast as well as their own, as the government has suggested they will.

Katy Clark MP

Main Street

Kilbirnie