UK cuts will have repercussions
The UK’s present policy toward public bodies will have repercussions for ports and coastal environments. It’s not that there’s no need for a trim, but some of these bodies provide near irreplaceable services.
To start with, it seems that the Incident Response Group, which at present provides a trained network to respond to fires, chemical releases and other incidents, is under the axe.
Further, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is going to have to chop four standby tugs that are chartered especially for use in incidents related to pollution control and towing to safety vessels that are in difficulty.
The government says that salvage is a “commercial affair”, but if there’s a vessel in distress with a leaking cargo about to spill into the ecosystem, do we wait to work out who’s responsible for the bill?
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