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  courtesy of the independent.
  
  Government plans to cut back on coastguard centres raise serious safety concerns and should be withdrawn, a report by MPs said today.
  Under Government proposals the number of coastguard centres open 24 hours a day will be reduced from 18 to three.
  
  the House of Commons Transport Committee said the evidence it had received during its inquiry raised "serious concerns that safety will be jeopardised if these proposals proceed".
  
  The committee also said the decision to withdraw funding for emergency towing vessels - large tugs that intercept disabled ships to prevent pollution - was "unwise and short-sighted" and was "inviting disaster".
  
  Launching the report the committee's chairman Louise Ellman said the coastguard proposals were "seriously flawed" and there was little support for them.
  
  She also expressed her disappointment that shipping minister Mike Penning had "instructed regular coastguards not to give evidence to the committee".
  
  Under the Government proposals the three 24-hour centres would be at Aberdeen, the Southampton/Portsmouth area and Dover.
  
  There would be five sub-centres open during daylight hours - at Swansea, Falmouth in Cornwall, Bridlington in East Yorkshire, Belfast or Liverpool, and Stornoway or Shetland

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