This week I met with the leaders of the Save Portland Coastguard Helicopter Campaign. On the sort of blustery night during which you certainly would not want to be at sea, we met at Portland Heights Hotel, and discussed the campaign’s challenges.
In what looks increasingly like a done deal, the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) has said that in September 2014 the Portland Coastguard control centre will close. Then in 2017 the Search & Rescue function (currently undertaken by Royal Navy / Royal Air Force) will become “civilianised” – and therefore privatised. American firm Bristow Helicopters Ltd will then be responsible for the national operations across the UK. As part of that process, the English Channel will be served by just 3 bases – one in Newquay to the west, one at Lee-on-Solent, and one in Kent to the east. Portland’s Search and Rescue operation will close.
In a stretch of coast that is the maritime equivalent of the M1, we will have cover that is based over 60 miles away.
The nation’s Olympic sailing venue – that is seeking to attract sailors from all over the globe – will not have its own local coastguard service.
I used to surf regularly at Kimmeridge Bay, all year-round in often heavy swells. I have fished in boats off the races at the tip of Portland, and kayaked and been spear-fishing all along the Dorset coast. Anyone who knows and respects the sea understands that when you’re in trouble, every minute in the water counts. The loss of the local coastguard service will deal a huge blow to an area that is wanting to market itself as a maritime leisure resort, and a centre of maritime industry.
The campaign has repeatedly come up against brick walls from government. An initial petition was closed down following “technical difficulties”, when it at accumulated over 18,000 signatures. A second online petition was started by the local MP – and has closed with over 17,000 signatures. With paper versions too, campaigners are trying to find the right route to present it to ministers.
Freedom of Information requests for coastguard data have been refused and the pat answer from the MCA is that the Portland area will “remain extremely well covered by the new service”.
To be fair, Richard Drax MP has spoken out on several occasions in defence of the coastguard service, but the problem is that unlike his predecessor Jim Knight MP who had genuine access and influence in government, Drax cuts a somewhat isolated and ignored figure in his own party, and has failed to get any real traction or momentum in his campaigning at a parliamentary level.
As with so many public services, this government has a clear ideological agenda to privatise as much as possible in the name of driving down costs and producing efficiencies – but whether profit should play any part in delivering search and rescue services is another matter. Despite the fact that this looks like a “done deal”, the Save Portland Coastguard Helicopter Campaign organisers are not giving up.
“What choice do we have?” one told me. “We have to at least let them know that they’ve got a fight on their hands.”
I intend to fight too. If you would like to join us, please follow the campaign via its Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/226349370766866/
Simon Bowkett is the South Dorset Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate. Follow his campaign at www.simonbowkett.co.uk, and on Twitter @Simon_Bowkett
