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Stornoway, Lewis

 

 

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Stornoway Coastguard campaign nominated for national award            6/11/11

The hugely successful public effort to save Stornoway Coastguard station has been nominated in a contest for the Public Campaign of the Year, run by the Herald newspaper .

The coastguard  campaign is one of three in the running for the title which marks public issues where community support made the Government sit up and take notice.

The threatened closure of schools in Argyll and the proposed rundown of RAF Lossiemouth were also high profile concerns.

Stornoway Coastguard station was saved from the axe after a strong community campaign this year forced a government U-turn.

Staffing levels were retained under new proposals which would seek to employ 23 staff with the Lewis maritime base continuing as 24-hour rescue centre - though staff have to reapply for their jobs as positions are being redesigned with different duties and job titles.

The slick, well run, campaign tightly focused on the issues involved and led to some 15,000 people signing a petition to save the Stornoway station  

Campaigners, led by  island coastguards under the Save Stornoway Coastguard banner  lobbied politicians at the highest level and generated unavoidable public pressure which forced the UK Government to rethink its savage plans to axe the station amongst a centralisation of coastguard duties to other parts of the country.

Though the government initially manoeuvred Shetland and Stornoway coastguard bases in a head-to-head pitch to retain only one as a scaled-down, part time operation, both island stations collaborated in a joint campaign to force a withdrawal of the proposals.

Coastguards were overwhelmingly backed by islanders, campaigners, politicians, the maritime fraternity, Western Isles Council and the wider community.