Tom Gordon
DAVID Cameron has confirmed the UK's military air rescue co-ordination centre is to be relocated from Scotland to the English Channel.
The Prime Minister conveyed the news in a letter to Nicola Sturgeon last week, rejecting a call for a rethink from all of Holyrood's party leaders.
The Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) will now be moved from Kinloss in Moray to Fareham, near Portsmouth, in Hampshire.
The ARCC co-ordinates RAF, Royal Navy and Coastguard search and rescue helicopters, as well as the RAF mountain rescue service.
Around 27 RAF posts and 10 civilian posts are affected by the move, which was announced by the Ministry of Defence in December, prompting an immediate outcry from MSPs about job losses.
The MoD says the change will see the co-ordination of air and sea rescues combined, resulting in a better services for those in distress.
Cameron said he knew confirmation of the move was not the answer Sturgeon wanted, but said the decision had been made "in order to allow the UK to follow global best practice".
Angus Robertson, the MP for Moray and the SNP's defence spokesperson and Westminster leader, said: "This is devastating news for the personnel at Kinloss, for Moray and Scotland more generally.
"David Cameron's confirmation of the closure of the rescue centre means that vital search and rescue operations across the North of Scotland will now not be co-ordinated from Moray but from hundreds of miles away in Hampshire.
"That cannot be allowed to threaten safety, but people will understandably have concerns about how this might affect life-saving search and rescue missions across Scotland.
"This underlines the extent to which Westminster is slashing defence capabilities across Scotland.
"UK Ministers repeatedly scaremongered about the effect they alleged independence could have on defence, yet it is they who are cutting our defence numbers to record low levels."
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