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Western Isles coastguard tug is reinstated 15/10/11
A coastguard tug has been temporarily reinstated to patrol the Minch. The Anglian Monarch was chartered for three months while the UK government tries to find funding to keep an emergency salvage ship for the Western Isles.
There was no coastguard tug ship cover in place for the past fortnight after the government axed the long term arrangement to save cash.
Comhairle nan Eilean’s tenacity in persuading the government that the Minch was vulnerable to an environmental disaster as there is no private salvage vessels readily available in the north west was successful.
At one crucial point, it seems an apparent harsh letter from Highland Council to Shipping Minister Mike Penning’s was feared to have threatened the whole campaign. With just days to go before the tug contract was to be axed, the island authorities split with Highland Council and made a successful final plea to retain the tugs.
However, the messy political wrangling behind the scenes resulted in the eleventh
hour U-
Today the Anglian Monarch is allocated to coastguard duties and is steaming up the north east coast of England to take up patrol in the Minch on Sunday. She is due to arrive off Ullapool at teatime tomorrow.
The Anglian Sovereign is presently off Kirkwall and is covering the seas around the Northern Isles.
A £3 million "breathing space" funding package will temporarily underwrite their running costs while a long term solution is thrashed out.
A rushed tender contract which follows European contract rules is expected to be launched to provide tugs in the north for the next three to five years.
SNP MSP Angus MacNeil said: “While I welcome this announcement, why has it taken the UK Government a fortnight to put this interim contract in place, this is something that should have been arranged before the contract ended on the 30th September.
“ I would hope that the UK Government are now working hard to ensure that they’re will be future cover in the Western and Northern Isles after this interim contract comes to an end.”