A DORSET MP has hit out at plans to close Portland’s Coastguard helicopter next year, claiming that “lives are at stake” as new figures reveal the extent of its work.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has released search and rescue (SAR) helicopter statistics for the past year, showing the number of rescues carried out across the country by each station and in each region.

The helicopter was in action again yesterday when it was called to airlift a woman to hospital who had slipped and injured herself on the Jurassic Coast.

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The MCA figures show that between April 2015 and June 2016, Portland’s helicopter was called out 151 times, with 84 of these to carry out rescue and recovery tasks.

A map released with the figures show that many of the call-outs are to incidents around the Dorset coast, primarily off Portland, with South Dorset MP Richard Drax saying the closure will leave the area “dangerously exposed”.

A campaign was launched in 2014 to try and save the helicopter with a petition gathering 100,000 signatures.

However, the helicopter is still set to be closed by July next year.

The figures also show for the year ending March 2016 the south west was the region with the second highest number of call outs for an SAR helicopter, with 87, behind only the Highlands and Islands in Scotland.

Mr Drax has long supported the campaign to save the helicopter and said that the figures only reinforce the campaign.

He said: “These figures confirm what we have always known. The south coast is the busiest search and rescue (SAR) area in the UK, with the exception of Scotland.

Half of all taskings in the south west take place along the coastline.

Yet, the Portland search and rescue helicopter will be gone for good by July 2017, leaving us dangerously exposed at the peak time of year for emergency call outs.

Instead, we will rely mainly on SAR services from Newquay and Lee on Solent, both considerably longer flying times away.

“The new SAR arrangements rely on bigger, faster helicopters, which are expected to cut flying times, making up for the thinner coverage overall. The problem is, as I have always said, that a helicopter can only be in one place at one time, however fast it is.”

Portland Mayor Sandy West, who was involved in the campaign to save the helicopter in 2014, said with a new Prime Minister in charge there was still a small hope that the plans could be looked at again and promised to fight until “the very last day that helicopter flies away”.

She said: “To have nothing between us and Lee on Solent is a disaster waiting to happen.”

Supercentre hubs part of plans to modernise service

THE CLOSURE of Portland’s Coastguard helicopter is part of government plans to modernise the coastguard service and create supercentres as hubs for lifesaving operations around the UK.

While Portland had the fewest taskings of the six bases that were open for the whole of the year ending in March 2016, 118, Lee on Solent had the third highest, meaning an even higher workload for that base come the end of June.

A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: “The new UK Search and Rescue (SAR) Helicopter Service provides a better service to the UK as a whole, thanks to the improved speed, range and capabilities of the new helicopters.

“Her Majesty’s Coastguard can call upon a range of people and assets to respond to a maritime emergency, including members of the Coastguard Rescue Service, RNLI lifeboats and SAR helicopters.

“The helicopter based at Portland is available 12 hours per day.

“The decision to close Portland was taken by ministers on the strength of independently commissioned advice contained in the Assurance Review of SAR Helicopter Basing Report, which we have published.”