Richard Drax, MP will today meet Secretary of State for Transport Justine Greening to discuss the proposed closure of the Portland Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopter.
The MP led a delegation on the same subject to Prime Minister David Cameron a week ago.
“He listened and promised to discuss it with the Secretary of State,” says Drax, “That is as much as we can hope for at this stage.”
Drax will be accompanied by Cabinet Minister Oliver Letwin, acting for his constituency of West Dorset, home to much of the coastline where the Portland helicopter operates.
Drax will present a report to the Secretary of State, which he believes shows that the analysis used by the Department for Transport to justify closing the base is wrong.
“It may look ‘fair’ to space our SAR helicopters equally around the coastline – and certainly the proposed map looks very pretty - but in fact, 25 per cent of all coastguard co-ordinated callouts are between Brixham, Portland and Lee on Solent,” says Drax. “Our rescue assets must be concentrated close to where they are most needed. Then they can travel to the peripheries on the less frequent callouts.”
“In addition, there are 300 ship movements a day passing within 20 miles of Portland Port; without the Portland helicopter, our ability to act in an emergency would be severely hampered.”
“You have only to think of the MS Napoli, where lifeboats were unable to perform the rescue due to hazardous submerged cargo containers. Only the Portland helicopter was able to get the people off, the salvage teams on and the police to the beach at Branscombe.”
Drax also questions the £12m cost assigned to the Portland helicopter by the DfT. “It is one of four bases controlled by the MCA,” he says. “In their annual report this year, they state the total cost for the four helicopter bases is £28m. Therefore the cost of the Portland helicopter can only be £7m or even less, bearing in mind that it is only oprational for 12 hours a day.”
If the Highways Authority figure of a cost of £2m per fatality is used, Drax says that the minimum of three extra deaths a year his team calculates could follow from the helicopter’s closure, will cost £6m - almost as much as the base itself. “It’s a false economy,”he says, “And it could cost us dearly.”
Under the new plans for civilianisation of the SAR helicopter service, the Portland helicopter is due to go by 2017. Drax has promised to fight it every inch of the way.