Over the past 5 months, a vociferous and concerted campaign has been
waged by people up and down the UK, not least in Stornoway, against
government plans to reduce the number of coastguard stations and staff.
Two demonstrations were held in Stornoway, on 31 January and 19 March.
Today, the Transport Committee from the House of Commons came to Lewis
to hear views of interested parties on the plans for the MCA. On the
same day, the UK Transport Secretary announced that the plans were to be
downgraded.
I believe that MCA staff would be supportive of changes in their
organisation, if they were shown not to degrade the service offered - or
better, improve it. However, making cuts purely for financial reasons
is sheer lunacy, and there is an awful lot of people who agree with
that. It is pleasing to see that after a lot of noise, those who make
the decisions do listen and are thinking again.
Well done, MCA staff.
Well done, all who supported them in their struggle.
So far.
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