Europe to the rescue as choppper service cut

BRITAIN'S cliffs and beaches are being patrolled by helicopters from France, Belgium and Ireland following a series of cutbacks in the RAF's air sea rescue service.

Coastguards said last week that accidents in the English Channel off the coast of Kent are being covered by Belgian rescue teams, as the nearest British crew is in Suffolk since the closure earlier this year of RAF Manston.

The west coast of Wales is increasingly being patrolled by helicopters from southern Ireland after a base at RAF Brawdy was closed. The closure meant that when two people went missing off the north coast between Llandudno and Anglesey last year, an Irish helicopter had to be called out.

In July last year, a French helicopter was called out to search at an emergency positioning radio beacon at Dungeness in Kent and the French have been called out when cross-Channel ferries have got into difficulty or passengers have fallen overboard, even when the incidents have happened close to the English coast.

Glenda Jackson, shadow Shipping Minister, has questioned Chris Harris, chief executive of the Coastguard agency, on Britain's reliance on foreign- based helicopters. In a written reply, he revealed that coastguards have had to call for help from foreign governments on nine occasions since the changes were introduced in a government review in 1994.

Shortly after the changes, a French helicopter had to be summoned to search for two passengers who had fallen from a cross-Channel ferry close to the shore at Ramsgate, Kent. Soon afterwards, in August 1994, a second cross-Channel ferry sent a Mayday alert after fire broke out on board, again close to Ramsgate; French air sea rescue was called out. Three months later, when a light aircraft came down in the sea near Liverpool, an Irish helicopter was deployed to carry out the rescue search.

The use of foreign helicopters follows a pounds 6.5m cut in the search and rescue budget after a report by the Helicopter Review Group in 1994.

Dutchy Holland, chairman of the Coastguard section of the Public Services Tax and Commerce Union (PTC), said: "There is always a problem when you lengthen response times for the helicopter or lifeboat to get to a distress position. By shutting Manston you are taking cover from the biggest shipping corridor in the world. The nearest rescue helicopters to the Dover Straits are now the French and Belgian ones."

Helicopters are used to dealing with about 12 per cent of search and rescue incidents. If an incident occurs within 40 nautical miles of the coast, helicopters are expected to reach the scene within an hour, allowing 15 minutes to scramble.

Ms Jackson said the shake-up had effectively left 2,000 nautical miles of British coastline without adequate helicopter cover. She said: "These cutbacks in helicopter cover are not only placing lives at risk but are an insult to the brave and dedicated crews of all nationalities who protect our coastlines.

"It is appropriate that we should work together with neighbouring countries in responding to major emergencies, but it cannot be right that we are now regularly having to rely on foreign rescue services for assistance in routine operations."

Her criticisms were angrily rejected by Lord Goschen, the minister for shipping and aviation, who accused her of being "misleading and alarmist". He said that helicopter coverage around the coast of Britain was "the best in northern Europe".

He said: "In addition to the excellent cover provided by military and civilian search and rescue helicopters, it is entirely appropriate that we have reciprocal arrangements with neighbouring countries to call on their assistance if necessary."