According to a well placed source within the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) discussions are currently taking place with a view to closing one of only two Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCC) on the East coast between the Thames and the Scottish border. The plans currently being discussed are apparently to either close the main coastguard station at Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk/Suffolk border or to relocate it 70 miles inland to Cambridge by 2013.
In response to a freedom of information request I submitted in January the head of organisational development at the MCA admitted that as far as Great Yarmouth MRCC was concerned “future provision will be the subject of full consultation with all relevant stakeholders” and that this future consultation process would take place before June 2013. Further confirmation of this closure plan has come from the government’s announcement that it plans to close the HMRC office in Great Yarmouth which shares the same offices as the Coastguard Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre. Local Conservative candidate Brandon Lewis who has already been campaigning against the closure of the HMRC office with the loss of 125 local jobs commented:
"This would be a devastating blow for Great Yarmouth. More government agency jobs would be moved away from an area that desperately needs secure jobs in addition to those in the traditional tourist sector. Another link with the town’s proud maritime heritage that goes back centuries would be lost for good.”
When this news becomes known there are also likely to many people with very real concerns about the impact this will have on safety at sea. No matter how sophisticated satellite and electronic communications equipment is, there is simply no substitute for local coastguard officers with local knowledge of the coast and personal relationships with the local volunteer lifeboat and search and rescue crews they have to call upon.
It was in this very area that in 1978 one of the worst environmental disasters on the UK coast happened when the Greek oil tanker Eleni V was hit in fog by a bulk ore carrier, sending 5,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the sea. Oil from the resulting slick which is still buried under the sands of the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts, had a devastating effect on the local tourist industry and cost local councils a small fortune to clean up. Today there are vastly more ships in the area than then. As I outlined on Conservative Homerecently, these include 30-40 oil tankers, by far the largest concentration of tankers anywhere in UK waters, which are now anchored off the North Suffolk coast. Peter Aldous, Conservative Candidate for Waveney, which includes this part of the Suffolk coast and the nearby port of Lowestoft commented on the proposed coastguard closure plan:
“A move or closure should be fought against; it would compromise safety and security and jobs would be lost at a time we don’t want any more bad news on the jobs front.”
The government’s plan to either close this main Coastguard rescue centre or relocate it inland to Cambridge is consistent with the government’s agenda of replacing local services with regional ones in East Anglia. This has not only included a two year attempt to replace local district councils in Norfolk and Suffolk with large unitary authorities, it has also directly impacted emergency services on which many people in Norfolk and Suffolk depend for their lives. So far this has included the removal of key hospital services such as emergency heart treatment from local hospitals to what are perceived to be regional centres such as Papworth in Cambridgeshire, a move which an outstanding campaign led by Ipswich Conservative candidate Ben Gummer has demonstrated will almost certainly cost lives. Similarly, if Labour win the general election local fire and rescue services in Norfolk and Suffolk will lose their own local control rooms where staff have detailed local knowledge. These will be replaced in 2011 by a new ‘central’ control centre in Cambridge for fire services from as far afield as Luton and Peterborough. Not unnaturally, this has raised fears of fire crews being sent to the wrong locations, particularly as many villages even in the same area of Norfolk or Suffolk have similar names. The Conservative Green paper on localismhas pledged to reverse Labour’s regional agenda, including scrapping the regional control centres for the fire service. That is a commitment that now clearly needs to be extended to the main coastguard rescue centres that those who live near, work or visit the sea depend on.
People’s safety must not be sacrificed to the present Labour government’s agenda of replacing local services with regional ones. Many people who live on, or visit the East Anglian coast will very rightly fear that closing the main coastguard rescue centre, one of only two between the Thames and the Scottish border is cutting corners with safety at sea. A party political agenda must never be put above people's safety.
