Speech in the Scottish Parliament

28 January 2011

I, too, congratulate Alasdair Allan on securing the debate.

The issue is of great concern to the whole of my region, with its many island communities and mainland coastal areas.

I am very pleased that the Western Isles has set up a task force, given its history of successful task forces.

I am also pleased that the task force is working closely with the Shetland islands campaign.

I hope that the two communities can work closely together.

This is not about who gains a coastguard station; it is about retaining all our 24-hour coastguard stations.

As Duncan McNeil said, the Clyde coastguard station covers parts of the Highlands and Islands.

We need therefore to work on a cross-party and cross-community basis.

It is important that the campaign attracts the broadest possible support; the issue is far too important for the campaign to become partisan and parochial.

Too often we have seen communities being pitted against one another to fight for lifeline services.

We cannot afford to take that bait.

When I heard about the proposals, I wrote immediately to the minister, Mike Penning MP. In his response, he confirmed that there would be

"two Maritime Operations Centres supported by six sub-centres, five of which would operate only during the day".

I am not an expert, but common sense dictates that search and rescue becomes more difficult at night, and that that is when local knowledge of tides and hazards really comes into its own.

In my view, therefore, search and rescue cannot be co-ordinated from just anywhere, especially at night.

We already have concerns about environmental damage arising from ships running aground; Rob Gibson mentioned the Braer.

Are memories so short?

Following the Braer disaster, new tugs were situated in Lewis and the Shetlands, but they, too, are now being removed.

Today’s ditching of a Tornado emphasises the danger.

Closure of the stations and removal of the tugs will leave that remote part of our coastline absolutely unprotected, will cost lives and will mean that environmental disasters impact on our communities for generations to come.

The lack of joined-up thinking goes further.

The replacement Nimrod was to be based in Kinloss but has been scrapped.

That decision was made with little regard paid to how we support the coastguard in rescues that are beyond the reach of search and rescue helicopters.

The search and rescue service is also subject to change.

All those decisions are being taken in their own little silos, but practice on the ground is that the services work together to protect our shipping and fishing industries.

We should add to that the development of renewable energy in the seas around the Pentland Firth to the north and to the west.

Those areas are ideal for the supply of energy, but tapping that energy is dangerous.

All the decisions to which I have referred need to be halted and co-ordinated.

We must take an approach that is based on how we can best serve our communities, rather than simply on bureaucrats doing the arithmetic.

I understand that a public meeting will take place in Stornoway tonight.

We are with those at the meeting in spirit, if not in person.

I hope that this debate, that meeting and the massive petition that has been launched in Shetland will be listened to by those who make the decisions and that they will stop and think about the impact that they are having on our communities.

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