A MUTINY by a lifeboat crew over plans to axe its “vital” lifeboat station in Britain’s biggest diving area is to gain backing tonight at a public meeting.
Volunteers at the lifeboat station in St Abbs on the Berwickshire coast are considering going it alone if the RNLI goes ahead with the closure this summer.
Tonight’s emergency meeting will consider whether to back the crew by axing the lucrative annual lifeboat day which raises funds for the charity.
Thousands of pounds are raised every year by the popular event but the July date may be scrapped in protest at the closure plan.
The volunteer crew insist the RNLI’s decision to shut it down after the summer will not just risk lives but will “rip the heart” out of the fishing village, which has become a hub for watersports. A petition to keep the station open has gained more than 3,000 signatures so far.
This week, new Berwickshire SNP MP Calum Kerr joined the fight to save the station, saying he had raised the issue with Holyrood’s minister for community safety, Paul Wheelhouse MSP.
Kerr said: “The lifeboat situation is particularly important as St Abbs is a notable leisure and diving location and I want to see the facility retained if at all possible.”
Crew committee member Euan Gibson said yesterday that the plans to go it alone were being discussed but the priority at the moment was to put pressure on the RNLI to rethink the closure.
“There are a couple of places on the coast where they do operate a private lifeboat but at the moment we are concentrating on keeping the station open,” he said, adding that tonight’s meeting would focus on the lifeboat day scheduled for July. “It’s a possibility that it might be scrapped,” he said.
The volunteers have now drawn up a list of 13 reasons why the RNLI should not close the station, which is based at Scotland’s most popular diving area. The towering cliffs of nearby St Abb’s Head, home to many seabirds, also attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year.
The volunteers pointed out that the imminent closure of the search and rescue unit at RAF Boulmer in Northumberland will result in the helicopter coverage of the coastline being “badly compromised”.
They added that when the tide is low, the St Abbs boat is the only one between Dunbar and Berwick-upon-Tweed able to launch.
They also argued that the coastguard alerts nearby Eyemouth RNLI first as a matter of course, when in up to 60 per cent of cases the incident “would have been better dealt with by St Abbs first”.
“The Atlantic 75 lifeboat from St Abbs can reach St Abb’s Head in four minutes, irrespective of weather, while a D class boat from Eyemouth takes 30 minutes to reach the popular dive sites,” the volunteers stated.
The RNLI wants to close the 104-year-old station, which costs £17,500 a year to run, instead having the area served by Eyemouth station, roughly two miles away.
“Our aim is to reduce risk to life, not to increase it, and I don’t believe that we are putting lives at risk as a result of this decision,” said George Rawlinson, RNLI operations director, adding that the RNLI would still be able to meet its main operational aim of launching within 10 minutes.
“We have the ability to provide a response service from Eye-mouth with two lifeboats.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here