The Dorset Echo has met with an encouraging
response since launching its ‘Save Our Lifesavers’ petition last week. The
campaign was instigated in response to news that Portland coastguard station
faces the axe in the Government’s consultation to restructure the Maritime and
Coastguard Agency (MCA), and hundreds of people have already signed the
petition urging councillors to resubmit plans for the location of a new
coastguard ‘supercentre’.

Weymouth & Portland Borough Council
sent a letter to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport Mike
Penning in February, highlighting five potential areas within the borough where
the supercentre could feasibly be sited. At a full council meeting on Thursday
of last week, councillor Dominic Lonsdale said: ‘The location of the
supercentre is undecided. There’s an intention for it to be in Southampton or
Portsmouth, but it can be sited anywhere.

‘I’m told by a senior member of the
Maritime and Coastguard Agency to resubmit the plan to have it in Weymouth and
Portland. In order for the bid to succeed, we must mobilize support in the
area.’

A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard
Agency said that he could not comment upon whether or not the borough council
should resubmit plans. For more details, and to download the petition, visit
www.dorsetecho.co.uk