MPs to scrutinise plans to scrap coastguard stations

The controversial proposals to close nine coastguard stations including Shetland or Stornoway may come under scrutiny next month by the UK parliament’s transport select committee.

The influential committee of MPs is to quiz three top executives from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, including the chief executive, vice-admiral Sir Alan Massey, in the House of Commons on Tuesday 8^th February as part of the inquiry it announced last month into the workings of the agency.

The committee has recently come under pressure from MPs, including Orkney and Shetland member Alistair Carmichael, to look specifically at the MCA’s so-called modernisation plans for the coastguard.

A consultation exercise is currently being carried out by the MCA before it decides whether to close the Shetland or Stornoway stations and reduce the other to daylight hours-only operations with Scotland’s only 24-hour coastguard station to be in Aberdeen.