September 2011

Letters

A response to last month’s Open Letter

Dear Editor,

I thought that the following might be of help and interest to readers after last month’s letter re oil spillages. This question was asked at Waveney District Council’s last meeting: ‘What contingency plans are in place to deal with a major incident resulting from the ship-to-ship oil transfer off the Waveney coast? And are these plans tested and ready to implement?’

Here follows extracts from the response:

The county has a Suffolk Marine Pollution Emergency Response Plan which was drafted by the County Oil Pollution Officer, the Environment Agency and the Suffolk Joint Emergency Planning Unit in conjunction with the Suffolk Resilience Forum. The plan sets out the multi-agency response arrangements for marine pollution events in Suffolk and provides information on the outline response, management and roles and responsibilities of individual agencies. All Category 1 and Category 2 Responders under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 were consulted on the plan when it was drafted and implemented in 2009 and again when it was reviewed in December 2010.

The Plan provides a local level enactment of the Maritime Coastguard Agency’s (MCA’s) National Contingency Plan. Should an off-shore incident, such as a spillage during the ship-to-ship transfer of oil or a major spill as a result of a collision between vessels result in oil contamination of the Suffolk beaches or estuarine flats, the Suffolk Marine Pollution Emergency Response Plan would be invoked.

The MCA is the competent UK authority that responds to pollution from shipping and off-shore installations. The MCA is required to react to maritime incidents and to have a comprehensive response procedure to deal with any emergency at sea that causes or threatens to cause pollution. The National Contingency Plan for Marine Pollution from Shipping and Off-shore Installations (NCP) sets out the command and control procedures for incident response.

As the lead agency the MCA require specific control measures to be in place to mitigate the risk from the ship-to-ship transfer of oil. These measures include a formal approval process for every transfer, the regular inspection of vessels, constant monitoring to ensure compliance with oil transfer conditions, the use of emergency shutdown devices in the event of hose failure and access to pollution control equipment either onboard the vessel or within easy access.

In the event of an incident, the MCA will provide advice and assistance to local authorities where pollution threatens the shoreline. They have specialist beach-cleaning equipment readily available for deployment if required and a Principal Counter Pollution and Salvage Officer covering East Anglia. In addition, Suffolk County Council have recently engaged, on a retainer basis, Braemer Howell, one of three major oil spill response companies with resources that could be deployed in the event of a major oil pollution incident.

Clearly the presence of this activity off our coast presents a risk. However, a dynamic risk assessment is conducted before each operation. Each vessel is inspected to ensure its sea-worthiness before a license is issued, booms are placed around both the supply vessel and the receiving vessel to contain any spillage and all relevant agencies (including JEPU) are given at least 24 hours’ notice of each transfer.

Local authorities do not have a statutory duty to clean up marine pollution, but do have powers to take action in the event of serious damage or risk to human welfare or the environment under both the Local Government and Civil Contingency Acts.

In the event of an oil spillage, Waveney District Council would be required to implement a Beachmaster Plan. A Beachmaster is the supervisor of a specified section of a shoreline clean-up operation. Key personnel from Waveney Norse and Suffolk Coastal Services Ltd have received Beachmaster training in supervision and clean-up operations. On the 6th July 2011, the District Emergency Planning Officer was notified that a bid to the MCA to host free refresher training for staff from coastal authorities in Suffolk had been successful. The date of the training is still to be confirmed, but will provide Waveney Norse and Suffolk Coastal Services staff with essential further training in dealing with a clean-up operation following an oil spill.

Cllr Sue Allen, Southwold

A further response

Dear Editor,

I refer to Simon Tobin’s letter last month concerning a contingency plan in the event of a major oil spill off the coast of Southwold and Lowestoft.

It is quite unacceptable that the Government and its locally elected Members of Parliament have so far failed to respond to this important question.

Southwold depends heavily on the quality of its seawater to support the tourist industry in the town. A major oil spill would have a devastating environmental and economic impact on this area.

We need to know what strategies are in place should such an emergency occur. Since reading Mr Tobin’s letter, I have independently written to the politicians concerned and I would urge others to do the same.

Not only is it necessary to support the ‘Southwold and Reydon Community Emergency Group’, but it may just be that a co-ordinated approach might at last result in the courtesy of a detailed reply to this critical question.

Chris Ure, Southwold

Remembering the USAF presence

Dear Editor,

Please may I make an appeal through your letters page to make contact with any United States Air Force personnel who served at RAF Bentwaters or RAF Woodbridge.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the arrival to the UK of the US Air Force air defence unit, the 81st Fighter Interception Wing.

Deployed to Europe to strengthen the newly created NATO alliance, the F-86 Sabre jets arrived at RAF Shepherds Grove air base near Stanton Suffolk and shortly thereafter moved to their permanent base at RAF Bentwaters near Woodbridge also in Suffolk.

The Wing went on to serve the NATO controlled forces in providing firstly defence of UK airspace, nuclear deterrent and ‘tank busting’ until 1993, when the Cold War had been won and the USAF presence in the UK was reduced.

On 25th September, the Bentwaters Cold War Museum are celebrating this anniversary and we are asking members of the public from the East Anglian region to contact us to share their memories of the American presence. We would especially like to find any veterans who served at Bentwaters and nearby Woodbridge bases that now live in the UK, and we would be most grateful to receive contact from ex servicemen and women as soon as possible.

Simon Gladas, Publicity and Liaison Officer, Bentwaters Aviation Society (e-mail simon.gladas@bentwaters-as.org.uk)

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