Calls to upgrade Stornoway as Scotland’s main coastguard centre 5/3/11
Donald Crichton Western Isles Labour candidate has backed the call for the Stornoway Coastguard station to be developed into the Marine Operations Centre rather than Aberdeen as outlined in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) consultation document to cut stations across the UK.
The MCA radical reforms proposes slashing the coastguard network to just two full time full time operations centres across the UK. One would be in Scotland and the MCA say this should be in Aberdeen.
The suggestion for turning the Stornoway station into the Marine Operations Centre was put to coastguard chief Sir Allan Massey by the local media in January.
It was raised again by Stornoway harbour master Captain Torquil Macleod at the MCA public consultation meeting on Tuesday.
Donald Crichton said: "Captain Macleod made a sensible and significant suggestion and the MCA would do well to go away and consider his proposal.
“As he said that instead of downgrading the Stornoway station it should be developed into the Marine Operations Centre and it would be better placed to secure the north and western seaboard than Aberdeen."
Captain Macleod pointed out that Aberdeen already has a robust and modern telecommunications network in place in the offshore industry, which could and does support the coordination of Marine Incidents.
Ships involved in the offshore sector, from Shetland to Dover, are equipped with modern communications, which can be utilised as a relay station in maritime distress situations.
Aberdeen Coastguard is able to deploy all such vessels in the event of a Marine emergency,
as well as the immediate availability of Helicopters. He added that the East coast
can get back-
On the West coast, the development of Stornoway to full Marine Operations Centre would be a key strategic decision, given its excellent location on the West coast, and with the visibility into the Atlantic. Generally vessels operating on the West Coast (one of the busiest areas in Europe for Leisure Craft) have the bare minimum in terms of equipment and is always susceptible to malfunction, given its operation in a harsh marine environment.
He also said that the remote areas around Scotland's West Coast, where many of these ships operate, are not even able to provide robust mobile phone coverage. The area needs people on the ground, who are able to compensate for the telecoms vacuum that exists in large areas of the west coast.
In January it was pressed upon coastguard chief Sir Alan Massey, on his visit to Lewis, that Stornoway could easily be upgraded to become the sole Scottish coastguard operation base.
He agreed -
Hebrides News pointed out to him that Aberdeen is the most expensive to run while the modern complex at Stornoway is the only a couple of thousand pounds from being the cheapest.
Mr Massey said: “Aberdeen offers the best in term of real estate.
“The other point is it’s got a significant population from which to recruit
“It’s also co-
“But that’s not to say there are not other arguments.
“There are very few operational reasons for choosing one station above the other. Very few.”
The MCA is also looking at the added expense of potentially having to continue to
shell out rent for the Aberdeen station -
Sir Massey said: “We’ve got (Aberdeen) on a lease and we’ve done our sums on this.
He added that overall: “Part of the factoring in was partly operational, but not
much. Partly to do with demographics -
“We looked but not much weighted much yet the unemployment rate -
“We also looked at what it would cost to close that as opposed to keeping it open.”