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Call to use Crown Estate profits to run coastguard tugs      8/7/11

 

 

The multi-million pound record profits of the Crown Estate should pay to save threatened coastguard tugs says Western Isles Council.

Two powerful salvage vessels protecting the north of Scotland are being withdrawn in a few weeks to save the UK government £32 million.

At the same time, The Crown Estate is announcing nearly £231 million profits this year - up 10% from the previous period.

Council leader Angus Campbell says a major part of the money is from rents from fish farms and marine energy developments which would be at risk from marine hazards when the tugs go.

He urges the Crown Estate to take some responsibility for ensuring the safety of those very seas where it makes its income.

Mr Campbell said: the “costs of the emergency tugs are a miniscule amount compared to the massive profits they are raking in from the seas around our coasts.

“The income from fishfarms in the Highlands and Islands alone would more than cover the cost of the emergency tugs.”

The Crown Estate manages around half the foreshore and almost all the seabed around the UK. Its total UK assets are valued at more than £7 billion.

The coastguard tugs -heavy duty seagoing workhorses designed to pull disabled ships away from rocks to avoid oil spill disasters - are based at strategic, busy, shipping points around Britain including Lerwick and Stornoway.

They will be removed from service in September as the UK Government insists salvage should be the responsibility of individual ship owners.

But campaigners warn there is no suitable commercial tugs in west Scotland leaving the coast exposed to emergencies.