CHIVENOR CAMPAIGN IS GATHERING MOMENTUM
January 21, 2010 10:03 AM
In North Devon Journal
In North Devon Journal
The Keep Chivenor 24 Hours Campaign is gathering momentum. Ministers must pause for thought before charging into privatisation contracts weeks before a general election.
The Government plans to contract out from 2012 Search & Rescue helicopter services from their 12 bases around the UK. Having originally invited tenders to operate all 12 stations 24/7, the Government decided last summer to downgrade three of them to daytime only. These are Chivenor, Boulmer in Northumberland and our neighbour Portland in Dorset.
This was a crude cost-cutting exercise. The Minister wrote to me revealing this change of plan in August and I put it into the public domain immediately - as I would expect any MP who came into possession of such information to do.
At night time our nearest stations will be Culdrose in the far tip of Cornwall, Anglesey in North Wales, and Lee-on-Solent in Hampshire. Government says that faster helicopters will be used. But however fast they are they cannot be in two places at once!
It is the same warped logic as boasting about more flying hours being available in Afghanistan, just flogging the same number of machines harder not providing more actual helicopters!
Chivenor handles more call-outs than either Culdrose or Anglesey. Depending on flying conditions, the time taken to get to emergencies - like traffic accidents - could be lengthened by as much as an hour.
There is no provision for in the tender for a second helicopter and standby crew. Put bluntly lives are at risk!
The Government should think again. The armed forces will lose first class flying experience for its personnel and a valuable public relations asset.
And with our forces in Afghanistan desperate for helicopters, and public finances in crisis, they will pay £5.1 billion for the new contract whereas one fiftieth of that sum would extend the life of the Sea Kings until 2022.
Organisations all over the south west and Wales are supporting the campaign. Thousands have joined the Facebook group "Keep RAF Chivenor 24 hours" and hundreds have signed my petition at www.nickharveymp.com/petitions which I will present in Parliament.
I have asked Parliamentary Questions about it, have tabled a motion with support from other MPs across the region and parties, and have talked to the bidders. I have lobbied Ministers, officials and the armed forces.
Government may shortly choose a preferred bidder for more detailed negotiation. But contracts mightn't be signed before the election. Some in industry doubt it will ever happen: our task is to prove them correct!
RECENT STATISTICS FROM THE MOD:
In the last three years, between the hours of 6.00 pm and 6.00 a.m.
nearly 100 civilians have been rescued by Chivenor helicopters.
This number does not include those rescues where Chivenor has played a supporting role to other SAR teams, e.g. lifeboats and cliff rescue teams.
Protest to:
• your MP
• your Welsh Assembly Member
• your District Councillor/County Councillor.
Register on Facebook: "Keep RAF Chivenor 24 hours" (now over 10,000 names and growing.)
Add your name to Nick Harvey's petition on:
www.nickharveymp.com/petitions
Bob Thompson
Deputy Mayor, Ilfracombe
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