COASTGUARD campaigners aim to keep up the pressure as MPs heard how control room cuts would put lives at risk.

The Portland Coastguard Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre on Weymouth harbourside is among those facing the axe in government cuts.

Ministers appeared to have a change of heart earlier this month when they announced they would not sign off the reforms until an inquiry is completed into the service’s effectiveness.

Now that inquiry has heard from unions, who lined up to attack the closures.

Steve Quinn, president of the Coastguard section of the Public and Commercial Services Union, told the House of Commons Transport Committee: “Cuts of this magnitude can only lead to putting people’s lives at risk.”

Mr Quinn also said he could see ‘no real benefits’ in the cuts.

Allan Graveson, senior national secretary of the seafarers’ union Nautilus, told the MPs: “Change to the system should not mean wholesale, or what appears to be random, cuts.

“New technology is no substitute for sufficiently-qualified personnel.”

Steve Todd, national secretary of the RMT transport union, said the cuts were ‘far too much’.

In written evidence to the committee, the Chamber of Shipping said the proposed closures ‘raised a number of concerns’.

It added that it did not believe the concepts of ‘peak and off-peak’ hours were fully applicable to shipping.

Under government plans, the number of centres open 24 hours a day would be reduced from 18 to just three – at Aberdeen, in the Southampton/Portsmouth area and at Dover.

There will be five sub-centres open during daylight hours – at Swansea, Falmouth in Cornwall, Bridlington in East Yorkshire, at either Belfast or Liverpool and at either Stornoway or Shetland.

Prime Minister David Cameron has indicated that he is prepared to revise the proposals, which would cut the number of rescue co-ordination centres around the country from 18 to eight.

A consultation on the Coastguard shake-up was due to end in March but has been extended until May.

Campaigners say that local knowledge is vital when co-ordinating rescues.

Jacqueline Stokes of Portland was rescued by coastguards after suffering a broken leg while riding her horse on the island in 2002.

Mrs Stokes said: “I agree with the experts who say that lives will be put at risk.”

She added: “Local knowledge is crucial.

“The coastgua- rds know the area really well.I would much rather have someone who knows the area at the other end of the phone than someone who doesn’t, relying on a computer.”

Mrs Stokes, whose son was also rescued by the coastguard while swimming, said she was ‘suspicious’ of the government’s recent change of heart over the Coastguard service and said it was important to keep up the pressure.

South Dorset MP Richard Drax said: “I’m delighted the consultation has been extended and that the government is saying the final outcome will not be what was first proposed, which is very encouraging.”

Mr Drax said he feared Weymouth would be at risk if the super centre site was chosen at nearby Solent.

He cited the thousands of people who visited the Dorset coast as well as those who sailed and dived.

Mr Drax added: “We need a local watchkeeping station and I will continue to fight to save it as long as I have breath in my body.”