In December 2010 the UK Government announced modernisation consultation proposals for HM Coastguard. At that time the intention was to reduce the UK's eighteen Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres to just two centres which would operate 24hrs per day. These centres (MOC's) would be supported by only five sub centres that would only be operational throughout "daylight hours only".(See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12007031).

The present Coastguard Station that serves our area is at Greenock where it leases space from the Ministry of Defence. These buildings are due to close in December 2012 (although the MOCs will not be fully operational until 2013 or 2014) but the Government is also to close Coastguard centres at Forth, Great Yarmouth, Liverpool, Thames, Swansea, Brixham, Portland and Solent by 31 March 2015.

Various campaigns have been running since the announcement was first made (the poster on the right may be familiar to many) urging the Government to reconsider this move and time is clearly now running out. It may be impossible to know for sure what the effect of the Greenock closure will have on us but it is easy to see that any incident that relies heavily upon local knowledge of our area is likely to be compromised when the nearest centre is so far away.