Scrapping of emergency tug funding slammed

25 Hydref 2010

Government plans to scrap funding for the UK's four powerful salvage tugs [1] are a backward penny-pinching step that puts the environment and seamen's lives at risk, according to a leading environmental organisation.  And, states Friends of the Earth Cymru, one of the areas most exposed to risk would be Pembrokeshire

Gordon James, Director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, said:

"The Pembrokeshire coast and marine environment is extremely important for wildlife, fishing and tourism and must be given the best protection. The cutting of funding for the large salvage tugs is a backward penny-pinching step that exposes Pembrokeshire's greatest asset to unnecessary risk. It also puts in danger the lives of seamen.

"While this measure will save £32 million over four years, we should remember that the financial cost of the Sea Empress oil spill was estimated to be around £150 million [2]. Although it is proposed that private companies will in future foot the bill for tug cover, there is no guarantee that this will happen.

"The emergency tugs were put in place on the recommendation of two separate inquiries, the Donaldson report of 1994, following the Brear oil spill off the Shetlands, and the Belton report of 1996. If the recommendations of the Donaldson report had been implemented quickly, a large salvage tug could have been in place in the Western Approaches before the Sea Empress oil spill [3].

"There is also a worrying precedent where tugs were not released to assist a tanker in distress. In December 2000, just four years after the Sea Empress spill, a tanker, the Blackfriars, broke its moorings and went aground on Musslewick Bay on the Pembrokeshire coast. No tugs came to its assistance because they were commercially contracted to deal with tankers that were queuing up to enter Milford Haven [4]. The Blackfriars was towed to safety thanks to the skill of the crew of the St Davids lifeboat.

"We understand that extra tug capacity has been put in place at Milford Haven to deal with the LNG tankers. There is, though, still a need to provide cover for other emergencies and for situations where these tugs would not be available."

NOTES

1. BBC News 24 October 2010   
   Four large salvage tugs have been placed to provide cover for the Dover Straits, The Minches (NW Scotland), Fair Isle (Shetland, NE Scotland) and Falmouth (SW Approaches and western English Channel). The Department of Transport has announced that these will no longer be funded by the government from September 2011.
2. The Environment Agency   Sea Empress Cost-Benefit project 
3. The 1994 Donaldson report following the Brear disaster and the Belton report of March 1996 both recommended the stationing of emergency towing vehicles at five locations around the UK coast including the Western Approaches.  
4. "You have to remember we are operating in a commercial climate and tankers were queuing up waiting for tugs to take them into the Haven" Coastguard spokesperson Mark Clarke quoted in the Western Telegraph (5th January 2000) on the failure of tugs to assist the grounded Blackfriars on 24th December 1999.

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