PEOPLE will be able to have their say on the future of under threat Portland Coastguard at a special meeting.

The aim is to allow people to see the plans in greater detail, talk to Maritime and Coastguard Agency representatives and express their views.

The meeting will be held from 7.30pm to 9pm on Tuesday, March 8 at All Saints School in Wyke Regis.

People also have the chance to have their say on changes to the coastguard that could see the station close by 2013.

Portland Coastguard station on Weymouth harbourside could close after the Olympic sailing events in 2012 if a new government proposal is given the green light.

A public consultation is currently taking place on plans to change the coastguard structure across the UK. The consultation period will end on March 14.

Currently there are 19 regional coastguard stations.

Under new government plans 10 coastguard stations around the UK would close by 2015. Two new coastguard super-centres would be created, one at Aberdeen to serve the north and one at either Southampton or Portsmouth to serve the south.

Currently the regional centres work in pairs so that if one centre has problems, the other can take over. The two new maritime operations centres would look after the majority of calls and house the most staff providing a national overview.

This would mean that potentially the centre in the south could help with a rescue operation anywhere in the country.

There would also be five regional centres in Humber, Swansea, Falmouth and either Liverpool or Belfast and Shetland or Stornoway and two further centres serving London and Dover.

The government said that it wants to make the changes to take advantage of new technology and tracking systems being put into boats and to fully integrate the coastguard rather than having small stations only paired to one another.

Saving money is also a consideration and the government hopes to save £120million over 25 years through the coastguard restructuring but admits that the plans could lead to staff redundancies.

Shipping Minister Mike Penning said that the coastguard needed urgent modernisation to keep pace with changing demands, changing technologies and the changing economy.

Mr Penning MP said: “Our proposals are in response to a long-overdue need to modernise the coastguard, providing a fully-integrated national network of control centres, actually increasing resilience.

“In turn, this will enable us to provide staff with greater responsibility, a recognised career structure and salaries to match. The locally-based volunteer rescue teams are unaffected by our proposals, indeed we are actually improving the support they receive through better management and training.”

He added: “Ultimately, I am confident a more effective, efficient coastguard emerge, ready to meet the challenges of the decades ahead.”

* To view the online consultation paper visit the Maritime and Coastguard Agency website at www.mcga.gov.uk and click on the link labelled ‘View the consultation documents on the proposals for the modernising the coastguard.’ Questionnaires can be completed online or printed out and returned to HM Coastguard Modernisation Consultation, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton, SO15 1EG.

The MCA will then review and consider the comments made and a summary of all the responses will be published on the MCA’s website.