Met Office Proposal to Close Aberdeen Weather Centre Must Be Stopped - Bruce

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 11th Oct 2005

Gordon Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce today made a formal submission to the Ministry of Defence to register his opposition to the proposed closure of the Aberdeen Met Office. The Ministry of Defence is currently holding a public consultation on whether the sole remaining civilian Met Office in Scotland should be closed.

Mr Bruce commented:

"The proposal put forward by Met Office management to close the Aberdeen Civil Centre will see the loss of a highly expert forecasting team serving the industries of the North East, leave the people of Scotland without a dedicated civilian weather station and damage the reputation of the national Met Office forever.

"The Aberdeen forecasting team are experts in the extreme and unpredictable Scottish weather and have built up a loyal customer base in the North East's fishing, oil and gas and tourist industries with their consistently high levels of service.

"Public servants such as the coastguard, mountain rescue and transport police routinely put their lives at risk to help the public and also require immediate, detailed and accurate weather information.

"Of course, technology has changed the basis of weather forecasting but to remove the last weather station in Scotland and have forecasts relayed from a remote HQ at Exeter is a flawed proposal and only being put forward to make short term monetary savings, which seem unlikely to be realised in any case.

"If the military insist on local weather forecasting then civilian users deserve the same standard of service.

"The Government must be made to see sense and stop this foolhardy proposal being put into action."

Related Link:

Malcolm Bruce's submission to Consultation on Future of Met Office Structure in full.