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Save Shetland Coastguard


millie
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Trust me, their local communities will be making a fuss.

 

A mercenary view perhaps, but in my opinion, let them worry about their local Station - it's fairly certain they aren't making Shetland a priority ahead of their local :)

Listening to MCA person being interviewed on BBC Radio Shetland has convinced me that I am right to say that what is needed is a concerted effort from all coastal communities to convince those who would cut costs of the value of local knowledge within Coastguard Stations. After all it could be a Shetland boat coming aground at night off The Lizard when, if this plan goes ahead, Falmouth Coastguard will be closed. Or I guess a Penzance boat in trouble off the back of Bressay with no Shetland Coastguard to help.

 

You're certainly right about the need for local knowledge in the Operations Room JustMe. Our Chief Executive stated that we had 2 lifeboats and 23 Coatguard teams in Shetland. That is factually incorrect. We actually have 17, one of which is currently non-operational. A small but important fact when knowing which team to call out to an emergency, but then I and my colleagues as local Coastguards would have know this, he from the mainland did not.

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Yes but the combined voices of all the communities affected by the proposed cuts can make a much louder noise together than the little squeak from Shetland.

 

OK. I see your point however I'm still not convinced.... yes of course I'd like to see HMCG continue as it is now but in reality it will not, and I'd much rather focus on saving the station I'm at i.e. Shetland than come next March finding that my modest contribution to the national campaign saved four stations but unfortunatly none of them were Shetland.

 

Incidently: In the late 90's the station I was at was in a similar situation, except we were to be "co-located" with our flank. Lord Donaldson was tasked to review the recommendation, and I recall the day he visited when a colleague had him (mentally) 'pinned' against the wall of the ops room while she gave him a piece of her mind :) IMHO I think that went a long way to our survival that time. my point is... at that time, in addition to a national campaign, each station had to do what it could to survive. btw Lord Donaldson was a great guy, may he R.I.P. (and it was also he who recommended Coastguard tugs/ETVs be stationed around the coast)

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What’s is making me angry about the Radio Shetland interview with the MCA Chief Exec -

"Lots on watch with very little to do" he says

"Far too many people with very little to do" he says

Well –

Are the phones answered and local professional, knowledgeable advice given, forecasts broadcast?

 

Are the radios answered providing reassurance, advice and assistance to mariners and coastal users around both island groups?

 

Is there not continuing coastguard proficiencies to study?

 

Are there not courses and exams to study for?

 

Is there not liaison and communication on a daily basis with local "resources�

 

Taking and logging reports from traffic entering the Fair Isle TSS!

 

I could go on!!!! Argggg.

 

There is plenty to justify MRCC Shetlands staff continuing to provide the 1st class 24 hour service to the seafarers and coastal users in and around Orkney and Shetland.

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What’s is making me angry about the Radio Shetland interview with the MCA Chief Exec -

"Lots on watch with very little to do" he says

"Far too many people with very little to do" he says

Well –

Are the phones answered and local professional, knowledgeable advice given, forecasts broadcast?

 

Are the radios answered providing reassurance, advice and assistance to mariners and coastal users around both island groups?

 

Is there not continuing coastguard proficiencies to study?

 

Are there not courses and exams to study for?

 

Is there not liaison and communication on a daily basis with local "resources�

 

Taking and logging reports from traffic entering the Fair Isle TSS!

 

I could go on!!!! Argggg.

 

There is plenty to justify MRCC Shetlands staff continuing to provide the 1st class 24 hour service to the seafarers and coastal users in and around Orkney and Shetland.

 

Quite, but then he wouldn't know would he, since he's never bothered to get off his backside to come and see what we do. His decisions are informed by a coterie of acolytes at HQ with an anti-local station agenda who want to see the day when the CG has only two super-stations, people like the Chief Coastguard Rod Johnson.

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As has already been said what the hell is happening to the UK cuts cuts cuts!! where will it end and what will we have when it ends? i dont think i wanna be here to find out!

 

when you go for a MCA exam esp the Orals so you can get your watchkeeping certs all they do is preach safety safety safety! now this is just taking the piss, closing very very valuable stations!

i serioulsy wonder how many people at Coastguard HQ think work at sea, on platforms, near the sea and live by the sea!!

 

if this goes ahead there will be many deaths without any doubt! if it gets turned around then theyve wasted even more money starting this carry on!

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What’s is making me angry about the Radio Shetland interview with the MCA Chief Exec -

"Lots on watch with very little to do" he says

"Far too many people with very little to do" he says

 

It would be an ideal world if the Coastguard never had anything to do. And nothing would make me happier.

But sadly, there are times when they have all too much to do.

 

The government has now got to the stage where they are putting a price on the life of every person, in the cuts that they can make to emergency services. (I'll hark back to the CG tug saving their billion quid sub, the government saved a few quid that day).

 

This government is like the SIC in every detail. They're cutting from the bottom.

Now everybody who's ever cooked a Sunday roast knows that the fat is always on the top.

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And of course the coastguard aren't restricted to helping folk on the watter.

 

At 12.45am Saturday the Coastguard rescue team assisted an ambulance that got stuck about a mile from a casualty’s home in Low Moresby, near Whitehaven. A spokeswoman for the Coastguard said the ambulance requested assistance from a Landrover and 4 x 4 because the road was too treacherous.

 

The Coastguard crew took the paramedic to their vehicle and escorted them to the ambulance.

Full story here.

I think maybe the government think the coastguard service can be run on charity (like the RNLI) And that's the way we're headed. :evil:

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It is a pity that the Coastguards cannot send a bill to some of the utter arsewanks that call them out.

 

That would surely help the coffers.

 

The coastguard cant but the police can charge them!

 

I know a boy in whalsay that shouted a mayday whilst drunk, got the helicopter, lifeboat, and rescue teams out and although he didnt get the £14000 bill for the lifeboay, heli etc... he got charged with a type of hoax call... he got no pity from me im afraid!! :twisted:

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Heres where this is all headed:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12042563

 

The proposals for the Fire Brigade are actually very similar to those for the Coastguard, only on a bigger scale. This whole project has collapsed at a cost of £423m to you and me, Joe Taxpayer! The main problem was, the IT systems that underpinned it all just couldn't do what they said it could do, does that sound familiar? The MCA has made great play in the consultation document of relying heavily on technology/IT systems - oh really?

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Hello,

 

I think the government want to be given a good boot up the bum for this ridiculous proposal. I have the misfortune to have read the 43 pages of guff they put out as a report to somehow try and justify why they are disembowelling the service. Its is utter bovine excrement (thats me being polite, what with this being my first post here an everything). It is heavily biased to "why we want to shut it" rather than "should we shut it". The question of should we close the stations was never even entertained.

 

Nowhere in the report does the influence on response times and appropriate response get discussed. This is just shoved under the carpet and they hope no-one will notice.

 

The fear is this: That some of the people left working in the coastguard will say f**K you and leave as I for one could not work in a place so unhappy as a CG watchroom now. This means that they are left scrabbling around for staff. I doubt any of the trained CG will want to leave Shetland to work in Aberdeen, so we will then have people who have utterly minimal experience running watches, incidents and searches.

 

The reliance on technology is pants. Technology fails all the time. I don't trust my computer to send email, why the hell am I going to trust one with running a search for a passenger that has gone overboard? You will lose the officers who have the experience to look at the numbers generated by the computer and go "hang on a minute, that looks wrong".

 

We are due an increase in sunspot activity in 2012/13. What on earth has that got to do with this? Well, it mucks up GPS by battering sattelites with solar wind, so suddenly you have sailors smacking into islands which the little box says is 2 miles away....

 

The people making these decisions probably go on a ferry every once in a while. Maybe walk the dog on the beach. Transfer them to a sinking boat 100 miles offshore, make them ill somewhere remote and then make them justify their decisions.

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