§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Lennox-Boyd.]
11.44 pm§ Miss Emma Nicholson (Torridge and Devon, West)I am grateful to the Minister for being here to reply to this debate and to my colleagues, my hon. Friends the Members for Devon, North (Mr. Speller) and for Cornwall, North (Mr. Neale) for their support.
The background to the debate is the Secretary of State's decision to transfer the Hartland search and rescue responsibilities to Swansea and to close the sub-centre. The Secretary of State was good enough to see me immediately he announced his decision and I expressed the concern of the public and myself at the decision. My right hon. Friend offered me the opportunity of having the chief coastguard, Captain Peter Harris, with me for a public meeting. The purpose of the meeting—as I suggested—was to test the community's response and to try to find evidence that would enable me to persuade my hon. Friend to change his mind. That meeting has taken place and the main point of my speech is that the community would prefer to keep Hartland as it is.
The sub-centre should be kept because the coast is treacherous and dangerous and local fishermen are at risk. The growth in tourism has been enormous and the north Devon link road and the Okehampton bypass are rapidly developing. Facilities are being provided to tempt local people and holiday-makers to use the sea more. There are now five adventure training centres in the Bideford area alone, with sea canoeing, surfing, sailboarding, coast and cliff activities offered. There is an estuary ski centre, two rowing clubs, four small sailing clubs, the north Devon yacht club and other marinas planned.
Perhaps a thousand people, many of them children, use the Bideford bay and estuary each week. Is it any wonder that many of the facilities provided by the search and rescue service help those users of the sea? Indeed, we encourage people to come to Devon and Cornwall to enjoy our coastline. Both the population and the tourist industry are growing.
At the same time as the great growth in amateur and professional activity on the sea and cliffs, Trinity House is ceasing to maintain the Bideford bell buoy and the leading lights. The Royal National Lifeboat Institute is withdrawing the Bristol channel lifeboat at Clovelly. Now we are faced with the closure of the Hartland search and rescue sub-centre. As a result of those three impending, separate moves, there has been a severe and natural loss of confidence within the fishing community, among other local sailors, their families and visitors, about future safety at sea.
The swiftness of the provision of the information did not help. The local coastguards heard of their impending transfer from the BBC. Their worries were immediately passed on and shared by the entire community. The loss of the coastguards and their families will be felt most keenly by the community who know them personally as well as in their professional capacity; they are admired and valued. People are also worried about the auxiliaries whose part-time work is also at risk. In such a small town, the 20 or so jobs matter very much. Work is not so prolific in our area that we can afford to lose even a single part-time job.
178 The entire community wants the Minister to keep the Hartland search and rescue sub-centre open and based at home. If the change must go ahead, can the Minister give me any assurance regarding the job security of the auxiliaries? Indeed, is there a chance that he could strengthen their role? Is there no work that could be left behind—no tasks connected with the maritime rescue sub-centre that the auxiliary rescue company could take up? The Minister will be aware that the auxiliaries are a hard-working and dedicated body of people. With the impending loss of the coastguards, it would be good to extend their service to the community still further.
If the proposed closure does take effect, I am pleased to hear that there will be no job loss among the coastguards, but that they will be transferred.
Our sector officer, of course, will remain. Would it be possible to strengthen his post if not by the appointment of a second sector officer, perhaps by concentrating his geographical area or in some other way? He is our community policeman in sea-going terms and he must not be stretched too far. Indeed, he will be the only full-time officer left.
As for Swansea—that dreadful place which strikes fear into the hearts of all at Hartland—there is a rumour that there will be inadequate staffing there, that there will not be sufficient officers on the watch and that not enough people will be in charge. Can the Minister assure me that there will be adequate staffing at Swansea? After all. it will have to cope with a double work load. Double the number of accidents will be sent through to the Swansea area.
There is a great worry that the telephone system will be inadequate. People who dial 999 complain constantly that they cannot get through. Will the telephone system be strengthened so that 999 calls will get through? That still leaves the fear that the general public, who report so many accidents, will not bother to make a trunk call. It is easy to make a local call, and we hope that they will still take the trouble when it becomes a long distance call.
Great concern was expressed at the meeting about the problem of distance. Everyone accepts that the new technology high-frequency radios will be effective, but not everyone has them. Many of the very small sailors, including sailboarders, do not have such equipment. However much we press them, they just will not have it.
But will the distance matter in terms of safety? Some people expressed fears about the distance because of the radio. Can the Minister assure me that he will monitor the speed of responses and that., in the coming months, if the decision takes effect, he will look carefully to see whether the response is genuinely as rapid as though the local coastguards were still at Hartland? Can he tell us honestly that it will be as swift and effective? That is the deepest fear of everyone, allied with the natural worry that, in the necessarily lengthy period of transfer, the coastguards based in Swansea will not know the local coastline well.
I was reassured by Captain Peter Harris's statement that he was transferring local coastguards more slowly so that they could teach their colleagues, but, as one local fisherman said: "They know me. They know where I fish, and when I get into trouble they know where I am. How can anyone in Swansea have that local knowledge?" That was a personal statement, but it expressed the community's fears.
I have a petition signed by 1,300 people which was gathered together swiftly in only five days. Treble the number of signatures could have been attracted had the 179 period been longer. One of the most important points made at the meeting was the need for a visual watch. I know, because Captain Harris told me, that we have not had a visual watch at Hartland since 1983, and that in many ways it is an archaic mthod of preserving safety at sea. As one of the coastguards said, at the exact moment that an accident happens he may be looking sideways. He may not be getting a cup of coffee, but something else may happen. The visual watch may not provide the guarantee of safety that the community believes it does.
None the less, especially with our great influx of tourists, I believe that a visual watch is important. The 1,300 people who signed the petition that was brought to me at 8 am on Sunday morning certainly feel that most deeply. Can the Minister reassure me that he will guarantee to set a visual watch when it is genuinely needed?
I cannot accept the Secretary of State's decision with peace of mind for sailors without the Minister's guarantee of continuing safety through these and other measures.
§ Mr. Tony Speller (Devon, North)It is normally a great pleasure to ally myself with my hon. Friend the Member for Torridge and Devon, West (Miss Nicholson), and I do so wholeheartedly, but not gladly. Now is not the time to reduce cover for the small boat brigade, let alone for the airbed brigade who bob gently out to sea on the tide, knowing nothing of the sea and its ways. My hon. Friend's constituents know about the sea, and have preserved the watch for a long time.
I understand entirely the reasons for the ministerial decision and I do not query it, but my constituents from the Ilfracombe and Croyde coastguard stations have come to me, not alarmed for jobs—as my hon. Friend said, the jobs are safe—but desperately alarmed for the safety of those who venture out in small boats without the knowledge that is desperately needed. For that reason, I am honoured, as always, to ally myself with my hon. Friend's views. I ask the Minister to keep a most careful eye on what happens. One child lost is too many, and if that loss can be blamed on the loss of the coastguard, neither he nor we will be easily forgiven.
§ Mr. Gerrard Neale (Cornwall, North)I, too, am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Torridge and Devon, West (Miss Nicholson) for including the interests of north Cornwall, and the part of the coast that joins Hartland, in this Adjournment debate.
Let me reiterate two or three of my hon. Friend's points. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will be able to clarify exactly what the future will be for the auxiliaries, because there is great concern among those who are involved in the tourist industry, and know that coast well, about the difficulties that visitors get into. They also know that many more people are indulging in adventurous sports and pastimes off the coast, which can cause considerable difficulties.
I also look forward to hearing what my hon. Friend the Minister says about Swansea and staffing there. Naturally, there is a lack of peace of mind as a result of the 180 announcement, which arises in no small way from the lack of confidence in Swansea's ability to deal with the problems—given that it is so far away.
My hon. Friend is quite right to have raised this issue and she is doing a great service to the people of Hartland, as well as to those who visit it while on holiday.
§ The Minister for Public Transport (Mr. David Mitchell)Good fortune has shone on my hon. Friend the Member for Torridge and Devon, West (Miss Nicholson) and secured her the opportunity to raise both the proposed closure in March next year of Hartland Point maritime co-ordination sub-centre and the adequacy of coastguard services planned for the north and west Devon coast.
Understandably, my hon. Friend seeks reassurance about coastguard services, not only on behalf of residents in her constituency but with an eye to the welfare of the thousands of visitors who flock to the area that she represents and to its attractive coastline.
My hon. Friend raised a number of important points. She referred to the huge number of people who use the coastal sea, especially in the summer, to concerns about Trinity House and Royal National Lifeboat Institution changes in the area, to the possible redeployment of those no longer required in the Hartland Point centre, to the possibility of a second full-time officer, on changes to reduce the sector officer's work load, to the adequacy of manning at Swansea and to the monitoring of the speed and efficiency of rescue services. I shall endeavour to cover all those points in my reply. My hon. Friend the Member for Devon, North (Mr. Speller) also raised the question of breeches buoys and rocket facilities, and I shall cover those points too.
For many people, including some hon. Members, the role and duties of Her Majesty's coastguard are something of a mystery. For that reason, it may be helpful if I start by explaining what the coastguards do and how they are organised to do it.
The United Kingdom coastline is divided into 110 sectors, each of which is manned by a group of part-time, but thoroughly trained, local auxiliary coastguards who perform varied duties from cliff rescue to visual watches at times of danger, under the command of a regular sector officer. The auxiliaries are recruited, trained and administered by the sector officer, a full-time professional coastguard.
Around our coast, there are 24 rescue co-ordination centres, whose job it is to receive information on incidents requiring search and rescue and to bring into operation the most suitable form of rescue service. The rescue co-ordination centres are manned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and they receive their information from satellite or radio distress signals, 999 calls and local coastguard sectors. The VHF radio is constantly monitored and, by means of 39 direction-finding VHF cross-reference systems, it is able to locate, or nearly locate, the source of the VHF distress signal.
Each co-ordination centre is responsible for a certain number of VHF aerials. It is a very effective system. By cross-linking one set of aerials with another, one can tell the precise direction from which a signal is coming. Where the direction lines from the two sets of aerials cross, one can identify the spot or be very near to the spot from which 181 the distress signal has come. The rescue co-ordination centre calls out the appropriate rescue service—the RNLI, a helicopter, or the auxiliary cliff rescue service.
I should add that even though it is not technically the responsibility of the coastguard, it also helps non-mariners who are in trouble on our coastline. I should like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the constant work that is done in that way by the auxiliary and full-time coastguards.
My hon. Friend the Member for Devon, North raised the question of breeches buoys. At the time of its introduction well over a century ago, the breeches buoy was the only practical way of taking survivors off stranded vessels. Not only has stranding become much more rare, but most vessels that run ashore do not break up quickly. The possibility of rescue by boat or aircraft, or even by walking ashore when weather and tide permit, have led to the end in practical terms of the breeches buoy. On many parts of the coast it has not been used at all in living memory, and in other parts it has been employed very infrequently. Across the nation it has been used to bring people ashore only twice in five years, and even then it is doubtful whether it was the only or best method to use. Consequently, the efforts and money devoted to this complicated, limited and largely unused system are being diverted to other forms of assistance.
My hon. Friend the Member for Devon, North also asked about rocket-firing lines—I think that is what he had in mind—to people in trouble in the sea, including those on air beds. Such rockets are not very accurate and may even puncture or otherwise damage the air bed containing the unfortunate person that it is hoped to rescue. That is not a wholly desirable way to proceed.
An immense amount of technological advance lies behind the provision of rescue services. New methods and new equipment provide ways of achieving an improved service for mariners in distress, whether they are on large commercial vessels, fishing boats or on one of the huge fleet of pleasure craft that crowd our coastline, especially the attractive parts such as those in the constituency of my hon. Friend.
I shall now turn from the general situation to the precise arrangements on the north and west Devon coasts, and shall deal first with visual watches. A visual watch from the Hartland coastguard look-out station is of limited value because one cannot see much of the near coast. However, there are very good long-distance sight lines. In practice, the visual watch is generally kept by Land Rover-equipped teams on appropriate vantage points and that has not been mounted continuously for five years. Visual casualty risk watches have instead been mounted and will continue to be mounted when the risks to mariners can be expected to rise.
That covers about 30 per cent. of the time and involves particular situations—either severe weather or a sudden deterioration in the weather or expected severe weather. The other characteristics which call for extra visual watches to be mounted are when there are many pleasure craft about. That means regattas, weekends in the summer, bank holidays and similar situations. In those situations when there are large numbers of craft about, especially when there are many amateurs on them, and in deteriorating weather conditions, extra visual watch is mounted and will continue to be mounted.
In the light of my hon. Friend's representations, I can say that it is intended to strengthen the auxiliary rescue 182 company at Hartland Point by deployment of additional auxiliaries—either some or all of those now tied up in the Hartland Point rescue centre and not on visual watch duties. I am sure that that announcement will reassure my hon. Friend and some of her constituents. I can promise that no compulsory redundancies will arise from the proposals for the Hartland Point rescue co-ordination centre.
My hon. Friend raised the question of the sector officer and asked me whether a second, back-up sector officer could be appointed or whether his work load could be eased so that he could give more time to that area. I can make a second announcement tonight, which I am sure my hon. Friend will welcome, that it is now proposed that the sector officer's length of coastline should be reduced by one third, and that the number of auxiliary companies for which he is responsible should be reduced from five to three. I am sure that my hon. Friend will be pleased to report that.
Another point raised by my hon. Friend, which slightly puzzles me, concerned the adequacy of the 999 system. The coastguard deserves considerable praise for its ingenuity over the matter of the 999 system. It has aligned the coastguard sectors with British Telecom's 999 call districts. As a result, if one makes a 999 call and asks for the coastguard, British Telecom automatically connects the call to the right coastguard rescue co-ordination centre. Of course, if someone from north Devon wants to get in touch with Swansea, he will not be successful because at the moment he will be put in touch with Hartland Point, as British Telecom is tied in with the coastguard. Once the change has taken place, he will automatically be put on to Swansea. My hon. Friend can be reassured on that point. I add that there is no question of her constituents worrying about long-distance calls, as such calls are automatically free.
My hon. Friend also raised the question of the merging of districts. There is a technical benefit from merging two districts on opposite sides of the Bristol channel. In a variety of ways this will simplify radio surveillance. Because of the configuration of the coastline, the best location for some of the VHF aerials is on the opposite side of the Bristol channel. Thus, Hartland has control of an area of Cardiff and Swansea is connected to an aerial site at Combe Martin behind Ilfracombe. By opetating all the aerial sites from one operations room, mutual interference will be avoided and there will be an improvement in the technical operation of the radio side of the rescue operations services. Because all the aerials are expected to be retained, there will be no diminution in the cover. The changes in the routes of the control lines and the concentration of traffic in bigger, better-manned stations will help.
It has been asked why the merger is not the other way round, with Hartland being retained instead of Swansea. That is because substantially better facilities which are necessary to cope with major problems, particularly major disasters, are available at Swansea. Unlike Hartland, the building is permanent and has capacity for expansion.
The coastguard depends for its effectiveness on local knowledge and it takes considerable pains to enable watchkeepers to gain and acquire familiarity with the full extent of their guard, not only by visiting and exploring, but by developing an intricate network of contacts which can be used to obtain up-to-date information. Above all, the auxiliaries, under the regular sector officers, who live 183 all along the coast, provide invaluable sources of background, and immediate operational intelligence when required.
I can add to that that there are a number of other ways in which contact is made for example—with the harbour-master. It may help if I add that when the change to Swansea takes place, not only will the senior officer being added to the team at Swansea come from Hartland, and bring that knowledge, but it is anticipated that probably four others with some knowledge will go from Hartland. That will ensure not only that there is a pool of such knowledge but that those who are responsible at Swansea will be going across the Bristol channel meeting people along the coast, talking to the auxiliaries and the sector officers, getting to know their contacts so that they know to whom they are talking and the conditions that they are describing.
My hon. Friend expressed anxieties about the recent RNLI decision to replace the Lundy lifeboat with an improved craft at Appledore. That is entirely outwith my responsibilities. However, I have to say that the overall lifeboat coverage in the area has been substantially improved by the introduction of the Tyne class boats at Tenby, Padstow and the Mumbles as well as at Appledore. Furthermore, one of the new fast carriage boats is due to be stationed at Ilfracombe next year, and that RNLI capability is certainly much appreciated by the coastguards.
The House will be aware of the helicopter coverage of the area, with RAF search and rescue helicopters providing first-class cover in the Bristol channel by day as well as by night, and in thick weather.
My hon. Friend mentioned the important point of the staffing level of regular coastguard offices at Swansea. This will be augmented to take account of the increased responsibilities of the station. Four extra watchkeeping officers and an extra officer to reinforce the district management team will be provided, at least until such time 184 as the merger has settled down. Some of these, and at least the senior officer reinforcing Swansea, will come from the north Devon coast, bringing with them their intimate local knowledge. Moreover, the full-time senior watch officers at Swansea will be visiting north Devon to examine the coastline, and, as I described earlier, to meet the sector officers, auxiliary companies, harbour masters, RNLI, coxswains and so on.
My hon. Friend also raised the question of monitoring the response. We see no reason why response times should be changed, but we shall monitor them. On average, there are 230 marine incidents a year in the Hartland district. Each incident will continue to be investigated in the future to determine whether there have been any delays, and whether the response was correct.
We are approaching the summer season, when many more people take to their boats, some of them amateurs, and some of them very professional. It is time to remind them of the need to make sure that they have VHF radio with them, especially if they go out of sight of land. It would be extremely foolish to sail without VHF radio, which gives the means to summon assistance if need be. Those who are not familiar with the coast should ask the coastguard for advice before setting out, and at all times people should ensure that they have life-saving equipment on board.
My hon. Friend can take back to north and west Devon the knowledge that she has secured from me the announcements of increased staffing levels at Swansea, the reduction in the length of coastline covered by the full-time sector officer looking after the auxiliaries, the strengthening in the auxiliary forces at the Hartland area by redeployment of some of those now employed in the maritime rescue sub-centre, and the continual monitoring of the speed of response to any incidents that occur in this area. I hope that with those four announcements, my hon. Friend will feel that her time in this short Adjournment debate has been well spent.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at fourteen minutes past Twelve o'clock.