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SEARCH AND RESCUE PLAN SUSPENDED

June 24, 2010 12:00 AM

Sea King SAR heloCampaigners for the Search and Rescue services in North Devon have welcomed the news that proposals to replace the national helicopter fleet have been suspended. But North Devon MP Nick Harvey warned we are not out of the woods yet.

The proposals of the previous Government to replace Sea King helicopters with a new faster fleet, also included plans to cut the service at RMB Chivenor from 24 hours to 12 hours cover during daylight hours.

But the new Government this week announced a series of cancelled or suspended projects. The SAR plan was among those suspended, and no decision will be made on its future until the Ministry of Defence Spending Review is concluded in November.

Nick Harvey said: "it's too early to tell, but it would be wrong to be seduced into thinking this is necessarily good news for Chivenor.

"My fear is that the Treasury will insist on things being done more cheaply, they will scrap this scheme and go back to the drawing board."

The previous Government had named the Soteria Consortium as their preferred bidders for the project, which was estimated to cost £7billion over 25 years - but no contract had been signed.

Nick Harvey said that if the scheme is scrapped there is still the possibility of resurrecting a plan where SAR stations could be cut from 12 to eight across the UK.

"I hope it won't come to that, but while Chivenor's Sea Kings are relatively new, at some stations they are up to 35 years old, so Chivenor's could be deployed elsewhere."

He said that a decision on the closures, should it ever come, would be made on geography, not on which bases are kept most busy.

Peter Luff MP, the Ministry of Defence's Procurement Minister will be responsible for the decision.

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