Mountain Rescue to be billed a small forture for Radio use.

[NickB]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/10/mountain_rescue_radio/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7662989.stm

Worth the time it takes to email/cost of a couple of stamps to make OFCOM/Your MP aware that as the government get pretty damn good value out of the free service the MR teams (and RNLI) provide then it would be nice to cut them some slack and charge them at a rate that reflects the work they do and their volunteer status.

Nick

[N Muir]

Worth the time it takes to email/cost of a couple of stamps to make OFCOM/Your MP aware that as the government get pretty damn good value out of the free service the MR teams

I do not mind the tax I pay if it helps to part fund the Mountain Rescue Teams as they do a wonderful good job.  The Scottish Government funding to the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland is £300000 for 2008-09.  It is not a 'free service' to Scottish tax payers, so I will not be contacting my MP.

I hope your map reading is better than your knowledge of Mountain Rescue funding.  

[NickB]

OK, I know the Scottish lot give money but the Westminister lot don't and even then in the grand scheme of things £300k is not a lot and if the teams themselves are asking all volunteers to write and complain that's good enough reason for me to be worried.

I'll stick with trusting the teams to know when something is bad for them.  Even if the Scottish Govt give a bit towards the upkeep of the service.

Nick

[Ozzrik]

Its absolutely disgraceful!  MRT is pressed enough for funds without being exposed to bidding on the open market for its radio bandwidths.  I really hope that Ofcom can see that cost isn't the only efficency driver (their basic argument) and that emergency services (esp those funded largely by public donations) cannot possibly be asked to compete with commercial organisations.  They do suggest themselves that RNLI and MRTs could be ommitted though so theres hope there.

On a positive note, if enough noise is made during the consultation, could we improve the situation for the rescue services (a complete exemption or larger discount etc?).

Horrible idea that they MRTs may be forced to cut costs else where in order to pay new rates at 4 or 5 times what they pay now.  I think that £129,000 per 1Mhz was the figure in the consult doc I read (could be wrong there though).

Will definately be contacting MP and MSP, hopefully if enough people do it'll get the issue more into the public eye.

Stuart