MCKECHIN: COASTGUARD PETITION SUPPORT "STAGGERING"

Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Ann McKechin MP will today join the Joint Stornoway and Shetland Coastguard Task Force to present a 28,000 strong petition to Downing Street calling on the Tory-led government to save the coastguard stations.

The Government is consulting on its plan to slash the number of maritime rescue co-ordination centres in the UK.

Ms McKechin will join members of Western Isles Council and Shetland Islands Council, cross-party MPs and representatives from each of the coastguard stations to deliver the petitions to Number 10.

The Outer Hebrides petition contains around 15,000 names and the Shetland petition has 13,000 names.

Ms McKechin, who will join the campaigners to hand the petitions into Number 10, said:
 
"The number of people who have signed this petition is staggering and shows the strength of feeling against the station closures.

"The sooner the Tory-led government wake up to the fact that their proposals pose a serious risk to safety around the Scottish coastline and could cost lives, the better.

"The UK government has handled this issue appallingly from the start and must now end the cruel limbo they have subjected communities to not just in Stornoway and Shetland, but communities across Scotland in Greenock and Fife too."

7 June