Ofcom hike of VHF radio licence fees threatens lifeboats and mountain rescue

Ofcom is proposing to hike the fees it charges for VHF licences – the frequency used by the rescue services – by almost 350%. It has offered to discuss a continuation of the traditional 50% discounts for charities, which covers these land and sea rescue services. However, the fee hike is so steep that even half of it will be almost three and a half times what these organisations currently pay.

Gerry Akroyd, leader of the Skye Mountain Rescue Team has told BC Scotland that the costs that would now be involved are ‘astronomical’. He pointed out that the mountain rescue service is ‘… a charitable organisation that save lives and is run by volunteers and is not a business’.

The Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland has written to Ofcom on the matter and has asked every individual in every mountain rescue team to write to it too.

Peter Bradley, UK Operations Manager for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) says that the charity currently pays £38,000 pa for its VHF licence. This is 50% of the standard fee. Use of radio by all the lifeboats is free of charge but transmission from all the onshore facilities is charged. These fees cover VHF transmission from the lifeboat stations and the radio pagers to summon volunteers crew.

Mr Bradley said that the new fee Ofcom propose to charge is £260,000. At a 50% discount, if this was agreed, the RNLI would still have to pay £130,000 pa. This is over 3.4 times the £38,000 it pays at the moment. When Mr Bradley says that he thinks it is unrealistic to imagine that volunteer fundraisers can generate this volume of additional cash in the current economic situation, it is easy to see what he means.

Like the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland, the RNLI hopes that its volunteers and supportive members of the public will make representations to Ofcom before the end of the consultation period on 30th October.

Here in Argyll these rescue services are central to the nature of the place and the safety of those who take advantage of its most significant assets of sea and hills. Ofcom needs to hear from Argyll. Do it here.