Anglian Sovereign: One of the four tugs set to be scrapped.
The rescue tug used to free the grounded nuclear submarine HMS Astute is to be scrapped as part of the Government’s spending cuts plan.
The Anglian Prince, based in the northern isles, is one of four emergency towing vessels (ETVs) that are to be taken out of service from September 2011, saving the Government £32.5m a year.
Its sister vessels are based in the south-west of England, the Dover Straits, and the western isles.
The four ships were introduced following a damning report into the risks of the UK coastline being polluted in the wake of the Braer oil spill, which was highly critical of the safety regime in place at the time.
But now the Government says that responsibility for stricken ships rests with their operators and private salvage contractors.
A spokesman for the Maritime & Coastguard Agency said: "Emergency towing vessels are mainly deployed when vessels break down. The government believes state provision of ETVs does not represent a correct use of taxpayers' money and that ship salvage should be a commercial matter between a ship's operator and the salvor."
The move was described as "an own goal" by Shetland Islands Council who lobbied furiously in the wake of the Braer oil spill for emergency services that could have prevented that environmental disaster.
Shetland Island Council's harbour board chairman Alastair Cooper said that the government was trying to reassure everyone that oil and gas exploration west of Shetland was safe following the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, while removing one of the main planks of its safety regime.
"The government is assuring us as a community that everything will be done safely to the highest standards and yet something which we had to make sure we could deal with anything that happened is going to be taken away from us. I can't understand it," Mr Cooper said.
"My reaction is one of total surprise and disgust. We are looking to ensure that activity west of Shetland is done properly and safely. This is a retrograde move.
"The ETVs are not just towing vessels, they deal with oil spills and now the government isn't going to have a response in the area. It's a bit of an own goal."
