Coastguard units withdraw service

Sean McGuire said the action had been taken with "deep regret"

Volunteer coastguard units on the Solway Firth have withdrawn their services in a row over insurance.

Teams at Kirkcudbright, Portling and Isle of Whithorn have joined the action, which follows a case in Wales where a volunteer was badly injured.

He was unable to return to his job and claims he received inadequate compensation.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has said arrangements are in place to provide cover during the action.

Coastguard teams have said it is the first time they have realised the limitations of their insurance cover.

We would very, very seriously regret having to put anybody over a cliff thinking that possibly if they got hurt they would not be properly looked after Shaun McGuire Isle of Whithorn unit

They say they are no longer prepared to put themselves at risk until it is improved.

Talks are planned between the volunteers and the MCA on Thursday.

Shaun McGuire - who leads the Isle of Whithorn coastguard team - said the action was drastic but necessary.

"It appears that coastguard officers are not insured for disability - merely loss of earnings," he said.

He added that all three Scottish units involved in the action were cliff rescue teams and could face dangerous situations.

Mr McGuire said: "On some of the jobs they put themselves at quite a lot of risk while on other jobs it is quite straightforward.

The Isle of Whithorn unit is one of those taking action

"The last job we were out on was assisting the police with recording body parts in Luce Bay.

"It was at night, in the dark, over slippery, rough stones which is quite risky."

The row centres on the Welsh case of Brian MacFarlane, who was injured while rescuing an animal from a cliff face four years ago.

The 38-year-old father subsequently lost his main job as a residential social worker, and claims he has not been given fair compensation.

Mr McGuire said they did not want a repeat situation in Dumfries and Galloway, so they had joined their Welsh colleagues' action.

"We would very, very seriously regret having to put anybody over a cliff thinking that possibly if they got hurt they would not be properly looked after," he said.

"We have got very deep regret about the decisions we have taken but I think we need to get it sorted out for our team members' sakes."

He said it appeared the MCA was starting to take the concerns on board.

'Sorted quickly'

"Hopefully, they will get it sorted very quickly and we will get back to operations as normal," he added.

The MCA said it felt the action was premature as planned discussions had not yet taken place.

It added that the civil service injuries benefits scheme - which covers the coastguards - was a national scheme which covered all civil servants.

The MCA said it could not change the scheme but could represent the view of the volunteers to central government.