A TV archaeologist is urging people to broadcast their support for the Save Our Lifesavers campaign.

Julian Richards, presenter of the BBC series Meet the Ancestors, is passionate about the South Dorset coastline and says it should retain a local coastguard operation room presence.

He said he was shocked when he heard that Portland Coastguard Station is to be axed.

Mr Richards added: “Our coast is incredibly varied and has got its own immediate characteristics – local knowledge is important.

“These things are now getting lost because there isn’t any awareness of the past.

“Something like local knowledge of the coast is vital.”

Mr Richards, who lives in Shaftesbury, has visited Portland a number of times and presented the Radio 4 series Men of Stone about the island’s quarrying heritage.

He said: “It’s having these things there to back up people who need the coastguard service. It is for seafarers, local inshore fishermen or people ploughing up and down the Channel.

“With things being stretched so thinly it’s going to take disasters to make people realise this is being stretched too far.”

The archaeologist, writer and broadcaster said the area could do with gaining more skilled jobs if the coastguard supercentre was built in this area.

“Modernisation is inevitable and I appreciate that you have to streamline things.”

Mr Richards is calling for more importance to be placed on tradition and less on technology.

“No one seems to value this local knowledge any more – there is no one to sit down with now and make sure all that knowledge is passed on.

“If someone has a massive amount of experience, when that person dies it’s lost.”

• Together with Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, we are holding a Walk of Support for Portland Coastguard on Saturday, September 3, from Weymouth Pavilion at 11am and would like as many people as possible to join us.

See more information on our Facebook page by searching for Portland Coastguard – Save Our Lifesavers or follow links from the Dorset Echo Facebook page.