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  • 02/2011 Fishing Report by Aaron Smith on Bad Boyz VI (Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey)

    Feb 2011 by Aaron Smith

    Report on-board Bad Boyz VI

    I do not know whether you have seen in the news that the Goverment is
    >> trying to close down and get rid of over half of the Coastguard
    >> stations and staff around the country.
    >>
    >> Basically at night time there will be two stations open, 1 in Aberdeen
    >> and 1 in Southampton and of course Dover who will primarily be working
    >> on the Channel Navigation Information System.
    >> They are also plans to get rid of over 200 full time operations room
    >> staff and
    >> all the local knowledge that they possess.
    >> There are also to be day stations
    >> working nine to five in Swansea, Humber, Falmouth, Liverpool or
    >> Belfast,
    >> Shetland or Stornoway. All the others at Milford Haven, Brixham,
    >> Holyhead,
    >> Clyde,Forth, Solent, Yarmouth and Thames are to close.
    >>
    >> We as Coastguards are extremely worried about this for a number of
    >> reasons:
    >>
    >> 1. How is somebody in Aberdeen going to know where the person on the
    >> beach in Wales is, especially if the person cannot spell the name of
    >> the beach. This analogy also covers loads of places around the country
    >> where the place name is the same as somewhere else. I heard the other
    >> day (in a Parlimentary debate, where the MP's across all parties are
    > up
    >> in
    >> arms), a place name in Scotland that occurs in five different areas of
    >> Scotland.
    >>
    >> 2. The MCA state that they are going to get busier, yet they think
    > they
    >> can cope
    >> with half of the staff.
    >>
    >> 3. One of my main concerns (as fishing is close to my heart) is for
    > the
    >> anglers using our shores, boats etc. If God forbid somebody fell into
    >> the sea off a rock or boat, the 999 call would go through to
    >> Southampton. They would then have to work out where the call
    >> came from, then start looking through databases to find the right
    >> lifeboat and the right rescue teams to send, by this time I fear it
    >> would be to late.
    >>
    >> Currently, the call is directed to the closest station and the
    >> operations staff's local knowledge kicks in and the boat and team are
    >> dispatched immediately. They would know that rescue team A (that is
    >> nearer) is no good because it is market day, so it would be quicker to
    >> send team B. This is the knowledge that is going to be lost.
    >>
    >> The MCA have written a consultation document that implies a radical
    >> change to the way the service is delivered is the only possible way in
    >> which to bring the Coastguard into the present. They then go on to
    >> offer the opportunity to comment on the proposals - but insist upon
    >> adequate evidence being presented to support the claims of the
    >> respondent.
    >>
    >> However, the document provided by the MCA itself appears to be lacking
    >> in supplying the salient details to back up the assertions made. For
    >> example, it suggests that having two large Coastguard stations
    > covering
    >> the UK at night would be more resilient than the current number. This
    >> would seem to ignore the fact that one station failure would cause a
    >> 50% decrease in capacity to deal with incidents. Things may be
    > quieter
    >> at night, but that statistic ignores the fact that a major incident
    > (or
    >> two) could happen at any time. It is a simplistic and flawed way to
    >> measure workload.can respond to.
    >>
    >> Our union the PCS has developed a letter for people to send
    >> electronically to their MP. All people have to do is fill in their
    >> name, email, and address, then press submit and it is automatically
    >> sent to their MP, so no letter writing or posting is necessary and
    > they
    >> will get a reply from their MP.
    >> The link to the page is http://www.pcs.org.uk/sos
    >>
    >> There is also a Facebook page (that is really to save Holyhead
    >> Coastguard, but the link to the PCS is on the info page)

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