Loss of life following closure of coastguard stations

I'm not sure whether 'In the news' is the correct forum for this as you can be sure that the government will not appreciate this news hitting the headlines!

The first Coastguard Stations listed to be closed will be closing this week. The Coastguard Station at Forth will no longer answer its phones or hear distress calls from mariners or members of the public along the East Coast of Scotland from 28th September! THIS WEEKEND!

That means that from that date staff at Aberdeen and Bridlington will have to take over the cover of the hundreds of miles between the two coastguard stations. Look at a map of Scotland and see the size of that area!
Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security when you are told that the lifeboats will still be there. With every respect to lifeboats crews, they are extremely brave people, but the lifeboat is no use to anyone if it is sent to the wrong place – a few minutes wasted redirecting the lifeboat to the correct place will cost lives.

It beggars belief that the government can truly say to us, the public, that our wellbeing and safety is of paramount concern and that no lives will be lost as a result of the planned closures. The government took absolutely no notice of the pleas from experienced coastguard staff who pointed out the danger of lost local knowledge, the extra workload put onto the existing Stations and the stress put onto staff who already work in a stressful emergency service.

Only three months after the demise of Forth Coastguard Station will come the end of Clyde. Yet again this area will be split between staff of the stations either side – in this case Stornoway and Belfast. Yet again there will be incidents that will end in the loss of life as a direct result of the closures. Many more Coastguard Stations all around the UK are listed to close in the next 12 – 18 months. Each closure will add hundreds of miles of coastline to be covered by the already stretched Coastguard Stations that will remain.

If you feel strongly about these closures PLEASE contact your local MP and demand that they get the government to rethink these closures before it is too late. Will the government hold its hands up and say “Sorry, we were wrong”? - for the families of the dead it would be too late anyway.