A ROW has broken out the provision of emergency coastguard tugs off Scotland's coastline after the grounding of a 400ft long cargo ship in the West Highlands.
An exclusion zone was established as salvage experts discussed how best to remove the Lysblink Seaways, from rocks near the village of Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula - with Holyrood ministers claiming UK Government cut-backs have left the country with just one coastguard tug to deal with such incidents.
Environment secretary Richard Lochhead pointed out that Whitehall cost-cutting in 2012 led to the removal the two emergency coastguard tugs from Shetland and Lewis. They were replaced by one based in Orkney until 2016.
Mr Lochhead called for changes at sea following Wednesday's accident, in which nobody was hurt, and the capsize of the Cemfjord with the loss of eight crew in the Pentland Firth last month.
He said these major incidents highlighted "the need to give our utmost protection to the marine environment."
Mr Lochhead added: "Our seas are vast, we have six times more water than land in Scotland and unfortunately incidents do happen. It is unacceptable that we have only one emergency towing vessel to cover the whole of the country. The UK Government cannot be allowed to gamble on Scotland's marine environment.
"This is why today I will write to seek early discussions on the immediate review and call of the UK Government to extend funding for Emergency Towing Vessels beyond March 2016."
A Department for Transport spokesman said: "The UK government has committed funding for emergency towing vessels in the waters off Scotland until March 31 2016.
"The case for continued funding beyond that date will be considered as part of any future spending priorities."
Meanwhile more diesel oil leaked from from the starboard side of Lysblink Seaways, which was still stuck near Ardnamurchan Point
A team from Svitzer Salvage conducted a detailed damage assessment and two tugs were at the scene to support the salvage operation, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said.
An absorbent boom had been put in to cope with the oil leak following discussions between the Secretary of State's representative (Sosrep) Hugh Shaw and the MCA's counter-pollution experts.
A temporary exclusion zone of 100 metres was also established around the ship. In a statement, the ship's owner DFD: "The ship is still aground and DFDS has hired salvage assistance and salvage vessels and tugboats are currently at the scene along with salvage experts."
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