CAROLINE DINENAGE OFF THE FENCE: "Volunteers are the backbone of our community"

When you have a 24 mile long coastline which is as beautiful and varied as the Gosport peninsula, from marinas, urban and waterfronts, to beaches, creeks and wildlife havens it's inevitable that you’ll need an emergency service which understands the particular safety challenges of the water. 

That’s what makes the volunteers of the Coastguard Rescue Service so important.

They are prepared to jump into action at the drop of a hat to save lives not only at sea but in other challenging environments.

That was put under threat recently as a legal ruling found that the Maritime and Coastguard Agency could stop paying their volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers hourly compensation for their time. 

MPs from across the political spectrum led by Isle of Wight MP Joe Robertson clubbed together to oppose the move and won. The Government U-Turned and remuneration will continue.

Volunteers really are the backbone of our community in the Gosport Constituency.

Despite the declining funding streams for independent lifeboat services which I highlighted in a debate in Parliament last October, GAFIRS are one of the busiest stations in the country.    

Their volunteers are real life heroes who also actively get involved in charitable work away from saving lives at sea.  Over the weekend I got involved with their charity lifeboat pull with Gosport and Fareham Rugby club, which aimed to raise funds for community defibrillators.

Since a community defibrillator at the Rugby Club was deployed by ‘Taff’, a club member and GAFIRS volunteer, to save the life of local runner David Croft, they have been fundraising for more.  Since then they have raised enough for an additional four defibs and I look forward to more being installed. 

Meanwhile in Westminster, our new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham tries to hit the ground running with a raft of policy announcements. 

This week he is due to make a speech on adult social care, a system which is groaning under the weight of our ageing population and which has long frustrated politicians from across the political spectrum. 

As a previous Care Minister, I know better than most of the challenges worrying Andy Burnham about how on earth we are going to pay for a comprehensive care system, which a recent report suggested could cost £18.5 billion a year by 2035-36. 

I was glad to see Kemi Badenoch, the Leader of the Opposition, offer Conservative support for reforming social care but on the very important condition that improvements aren’t funded by further tax rises. With the cost of living still high, it wouldn’t be right to impose further costs on households in the form of more tax, especially when Labour have increased taxes by a whopping £105 billion already.

We will see what the new Prime Minister has in mind shortly!