The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) have announced an increase of 10% in their vehicle fleet. A total of 45 new vehicles will soon be in use around the coast, from Shetland to Falmouth. The fleet consists of 21 Ford Focuses, 17 Toyota Hilux Doublecabs, and 4 Toyota Land Cruiser Colorado 4x4s and 4 Nissan Terranos.

The Ford Focuses will be used as pool cars for both Coastguard administration and surveying whilst the Hilux Doublecabs and Terranos will be used for Coastguard Rescue. The Toyota Land Cruiser Colorado 4x4s will be used to tow the MCA's publicity trailer. All the fleet will be managed by Sussex based Automotive Leasing.

Maurice Storey, MCA Chief Executive said: "We are pleased to be taking delivery of the new vehicles, which will result in the MCA fleet being increased by 10%. The new Focuses, Hilux, Colorados and Terranos will be going to 18 different locations around the coast, enhancing the already excellent service which our Coastguards and Surveyors and Auxiliary staff provide."

Now I might just be knit-picking here but correct me if I'm wrong. 21+17+4+4=46 vehicles in my book of accounting.  Who can't add up then?

ICCS causes rift in Coastguard

Doubts over the reliability of hi-tech equipment being introduced to the coastguard service, at the cost of jobs at Pentland Coastguard and other stations, have caused a rift in the organisation, reported the Orcadian 14 Oct.

Representative of the Public Commercial Service (PCS) union who represent coastguard staff say that they are not being allowed to carry out their functions properly because of threats and intimidation from middle-management.

Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody, the MP who chaired the Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport, who published their report on the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in February 1999, said she would take any evidence of intimidation or bullying from MCA management to the floor of the House of Commons.

The rift between staff is centred on the new Integrated Coastguard Communication System (ICCS). On the one hand MCA stress that coastguard cover can be maintained and provided remotely, and on the other hand opponents say that an electronic device can’t interrogate a casualty to find out how and why they are in difficulty. Meaning watch staff have to hold a more intimate knowledge of a vastly extended area to be able to make use of the rescue facilities available.

Senior information officer for the MCA, Mr. Mark Clark said, "The agency would look very dimly on any example of intimidation", and added, "the MCA has a policy to root out bullying."

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MCA Tug announcement

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency have awarded an important new contract to Klyne Tugs (Lowestoft) Ltd to provide an additional Emergency Towing Vessel (ETV), to be based at Kirkwall in Orkney for the winter season.

News of the contract has been widely welcomed throughout the north of Scotland, Orkney and the Shetland Isles. "It’s very good news. It will allow a reasonable response time to any incidents in the Pentland Firth or the Fair Isle Channel," said Captain Bob Moore, OIC Director of harbours.

Mr. Jim Wallace, MP for Orkney and Shetland, welcomed the decision, though he questioned the apparent contradiction between a government statement on the issue, referring to the number of recent incidents in the area requiring (ETV) assistance, and the plans to close Pentland Coastguard.

He added: "The closure of the Pentland Station will deprive Orkney of this local direction, with the inevitable steady loss of local knowledge handicapping the effective use of the tug. Thus, while I welcome the salvage tug announcement as a very definite step forward, I share the concerns of my Orkney constituents, that the closure of the Pentland Station will still mean a very significant step backwards."

The powerful tug Anglian Monarch, with her 152 tonnes bollard pull, began her tour of duty on the 15th of October 1999.  She will remain on station providing emergency towing and anti-pollution services in the Fair Isle Channel and the Pentland Firth area until the 31st March 2000.

Klyne Tugs (Lowestoft) Ltd are Britain’s largest major independent towage and salvage operator. In 1998 the company were awarded a contract by the MCA to station the salvage tug ‘Anglian Prince’ at Stornoway in the north west of Scotland for three consecutive winter seasons. During it’s first season 1998/99 the tug was tasked approximately 50 times, to attend a variety of incidents and marine emergencies,

Mr. John Astbury, Chief Coastguard said; "I am very pleased to announce the award of this contract as it addresses one of the recommendations contained in the Marine Accident and Investigation Branch (MAIB) report following the loss of the ‘Green Lily’ off Bressay in Shetland in November 1997. That recommended examining placing such a tug to cover this particularly dangerous sea area."

Mr. Carl Beare, managing director of Klyne Tugs (Lowestoft) Ltd, said; "I am very pleased to hear of the award of this contract, which will extend our successful relationship with the MCA in Scotland and the vessel we will use is a brand new tug, the Anglian Monarch, which will be well suited to the job and the extremes of weather often seen in the sea area which she will work".

ETV’s have clearly demonstrated their usefulness in UK waters, contributing to the success of many casualties.

On the 5th October, while the ETV ‘Anglian Prince’ was on station at Stornoway, Captain Peter Rimmer was to receive the Chief Coastguards Commendation for work carried out in 1998 relating to the disabled fishing vessel Sundari in horrendous weather conditions between the 8th and 10th November last year. ‘Anglian Prince’ stood by Sundari west of the Isle of Lewis for over 25 hours in storm force 11 winds and seas that were breaking completely over the 1598 ton salvage tug. Lifeboats and helicopters were unable to respond due to the severe weather. Coastguard DC Nick Teale stated that "the ‘Anglian Prince’ was the only vessel capable of responding in those conditions and the rescue was an exceptional feat of seamanship".

Since the grounding of the Braer oil tanker off Quendale in Shetland in 1993 there has been repeated calls for a salvage tug to cover the waters around Orkney, Shetland and the Pentland Firth. More recently earlier this year following the near catastrophe that hit the north of Scotland when the chemical tanker ‘Multitank Ascania’ caught fire and drifted helplessly towards the coastal village of Skarfskerry in Caithness, causing 600 residents to be evacuated to a safe area.

Mr. John Prescott, deputy PM said following the ‘Mulitank Ascania’ incident that he intended to look into the feasibility of providing an additional government funded tug to provide coverage in the north of Scotland. He added, "This is something which we will wish to take forward as quickly as possible".

Built in 1999, Anglian Monarch weighs 1485 tonnes. She is 58 metres long and a draft of 6.8 metres. Powered by two
Niigata 6MG41HX main engines producing 11,400bhp. She has a continuous Bollard Pull of 152 tonnes (160 tonnes maximum). She has two 4 bladed propellers with twin independently controlled "high lift rudders" and a 13 tonnes bow thruster and a 10 tonne stern thruster.

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Pentland to close in 2000

Pentland MRSC will close in autumn 2000 despite local concerns that such a move will have an adverse effect on safety through the loss of local knowledge.

In announcing the publication of Lord Donaldson's review of the Coastguard Co-ordination Station closures, John Prescott Deputy PM. Said, ‘I have accepted all his recommendations.’

Lord Donaldson was asked to consider separately the case for each co-ordination centre closure. His advice was that there was no conclusive argument for retaining the sub-centres at Oban, Pentland or Tynemouth, and that the work could be coordinated from neighouring centres. But he did not support the closure of Liverpool, or the co-location of Portland with Solent.

Lord Donaldson based his advice on a number of factors; number of incidents; the length of coastline; the rescue resources managed; the predominant type of maritime activity (including leisure activity and tanker traffic); and environmental considerations. He concluded that the counter pollution role of providing a forward command and control centre, though important, was secondary to each centre's role in coordinating search and rescue missions.

The most important balance to strike was that between work loading and local knowledge. Watch keeping staff need regularly to practice their skills and must not become bored. On the other hand, the size of the district must not grow beyond the capacity of staff to hold the level of local knowledge considered necessary in the coordination centre.

In the case of Pentland Coastguard, Lord Donaldson advised that the workload was unduly low. In fact, he found that even taking the combined district of Shetland and Pentland would still be among the quietest round the UK coast and would not be too large to cope with. Furthermore, he advised that the likelihood of a major oil incident in the Pentland Firth is too low to justify the manning and equipping of a separate co-ordination centre to provide local command and control.

Accordingly, the co-ordination work of Pentland will be transferred to neighbouring centres when they will have been reequipped with the new generation of communications technology.

In appreciating that the governments’ decision would not be welcomed locally, it was expressed that there is a genuine concern about safety and environmental protection. Mr. Prescott said, ‘I would not be taking forward these closures if I felt that the remaining coordination centres could not cope with the increased workload’.

The Deputy PM now intends to look into the feasibility of providing an additional government funded tug to provide coverage in the north of Scotland. "This is something which we will wish to take forward as quickly as possible", he said.

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£67,000 to save Pentland

Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish is contemplating calling for an Adjournment Debate on the issues surrounding the closure of Pentland Coastguard, following the disclosure that the government will save only £67,000 by its closure. Similarly, closing the coastguard rescue station at Oban will make savings of only £30,000. It was further revealed that a one-off saving of £450,000 will also be made by not having to install ICCS in the stations to be closed.

In a report from the National Audit Office it said, "Financial savings generated by the proposed reduction in the number of co-ordination centres would be used to fund the introduction of new communications technology." Yet, MCA officials say savings are inevitable when you close stations but were not a consideration when it came to funding the new Integrated Coastguard Communications System (ICCS) project. However, Mr. Astbury said before the Select Committee on Public Accounts that "The idea was quite simple. If we could introduce new technology and seek an investment in that technology of several million pounds and then use that technology to improve the service and at the same time reduce the costs to the Exchequer that seemed perfectly sensible to us."

It would seem then that savings are merely a happy coincidence. Yet opponents still maintain that closures were as a result of nothing more than a cost driven exercise to save money in order to fund the new ICCS project, which aims to deliver a complete replacement of the present communication infrastructure of HM Coastguard.

Orkney and Shetland MSP Jim Wallace has written to Mr. John Prescott, the Minister for Transport and the Regions asking for reconsideration into the decision to close Pentland Coastguard. Mr Wallace told the Orcadian recently that, "I have always believed that the decision has been cost driven", and that the revelations over the cost savings had "blown the economic case out of the water." Mr. Wallace went on to say, "I am unsure how closing two stations, with an excellent track record of service dealing with difficult areas of water, can be making better use of resources".

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Flare report

Pentland Coastguard took the opportunity to remind the public that red flares should only be fired in genuine emergencies following a recent false alarm on 2 October 1999..

Several calls were received reporting the sighting of a red flare at around 3.30pm at the north end of South Ronaldsay. The Longhope lifeboat and volunteer coastguards from Brough Head, spent six-and-a-half-hours and two-and-a-half-hours respectively searching an area around the fourth barrier, without success.

It was later established that the flare had been fired from onshore.

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Diving incident

A visiting sport diver was landed ashore from the John L at Houton on 1 October with a suspected case of decompression sickness.

The man who was a member of a diving group from England, was treated locally by a doctor for a missed decompression stop on his ascent, and was able to be released without the need for further treatment.

The Orcadian 7/10/99

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Closure delay rumours unfounded say MCA

MCA officials have been quick to dispel reports of a delay in the closure of Pentland Coastguard.

A spokesperson for the MCA told the Orcadian: "It is fair to say that things have slipped a bit, but closure is still scheduled to take place, as planned, this autumn.  But what will happen is that there'll be a transitional period until Shetland and Aberdeen finally take over full responsibility for the Pentland area.  It is likely to be January 2001, before the key is turned in the door at Pentland."

The spokesperson added: "It could be regarded as a 'hand-holding exercise', if you like"

Mr. Richard Crowther, the regional inspector for Aberdeen said, "We're simply being prudent to ensure that any snags or glitches with the new digital equipment have been cleared up before closing the local co-ordination centre.  After all, you wouldn't thank us if the whole system crashed a week later, leaving the Orkney area uncovered.  We're just ensuring stability of service before the final transfer."