News / Campaigners ready for minister
CAMPAIGNERS opposing government plans to close Shetland’s coastguard co-ordinating station are preparing to tackle UK shipping minister Mike Penning when he visits the isles on Thursday.
Mr Penning arrived in Shetland on Wednesday evening after spending the day in Lewis where the Stornoway coastguard station is also under threat.
Escorted by northern isles MP Alistair Carmichael, the government’s deputy chief whip but an opponent of the plans to streamline the coastguard service, the minister will spend the morning at Sullom Voe oil terminal.
After a lunch with senior councillors and council officials, he will meet coastguard officers at the Lerwick station in the afternoon.
The local campaign group Save Our Station has amassed more than 12,589 signatures on their petition opposing the plans, however it has decided not to hand the petition to the minister on Thursday.
Spokesman Mike Smith said: “We have now decided that instead it will have more effect if we send it to the House of Commons transport select committee as proof of public feeling against the cuts.”
Before he leaves Shetland the minister will board the coastguard’s search and rescue helicopter for an aerial tour of the islands.
Shetland MSP Tavish Scott will join the party meeting the minister during the day, when he will urge him to drop the closure plans along with the plans to remove the coastguard’s emergency tugs.
“As well as demanding that he listens to the strong case for the retention of the Lerwick and Stornoway stations as full time coastguard stations, I will push him to drop his government’s plans to remove the coastguard tugs,” Mr Scott said.
“The minister should at least understand something about geography after he’s visited Shetland. That at least would be a start.”
Earlier this week more than 40 people attended a public meeting in Kirkwall as part of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency’s consultation on the future of the service.
Mr Carmichael, who attended the meeting, said: “It is over 10 years since Orkney’s coastguard station was closed and I believe that the Orkney experience, which includes a large reduction in the number of coastguard volunteers over that period, is relevant and important.”
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