PLANS to withdraw from service a boat used by Walney Coastguard in Morecambe Bay from service have been put on hold until further safety tests are carried out.

In January, The Westmorland Gazette reported the 5.1-metre single outboard inflatable, which can be launched from shores, in estuaries and on lakes, no longer met rescue boat regulations, which were updated this year.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency told the Walney team, which covers 100 miles of coastline from the Duddon Estuary to Humphrey Head, that the boat would be withdrawn from service in April and permanently removed from the coastguard station in September.

In response, members of the team, along

with district and county councillors in the Furness area, launched a campaign to keep the boat at Walney.

On Thursday, a 3,500-signature petition was handed to the chief coastguard of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, John Astbury, at a meeting in Barrow organised by Furness MP John Hutton.

At the meeting, the agency agreed to put its plans to axe the general-purpose boat on hold until a further computer-based risk assessment was carried out.

Spokesman for Liverpool coastguard Bernie Prescott said: " The test will prove one way or another whether a boat of this kind is needed in the area.

Mr Astbury said he wants the test done by the end of November so we are going to try to get it done as soon as possible.

"If the test shows that a boat is needed, it will also highlight what kind of craft it should be, but it definitely can't be the one that is already there as it does not meet RBC standards."

Walney Coastguard Station officer Steve Simm was confident the assessment would prove the need for a replacement boat.

He said: "At the meeting, the members of the agency agreed they had made some mistakes and that they will look at our issue properly.

We are confident that once all the information is put forward to them and the test is carried out, we will get a replacement boat that meets the new regulations."

One of the reasons the GP boat has failed is because it is fitted with one engine and needs two in the event of a breakdown at sea.

Mr Simm said he felt the meetings had gone well and without the backing of the local community and Mr Hutton, the agency may not have agreed to reconsider axing the boat.

"The response from the public is brilliant as not everybody will require the use of the coastguard in their lives.

I don't think we would have got this far without their help.

"If, after the risk assessment is carried out, the agency still refuses to give us a replacement boat then we will go on fighting, but I am quite sure that will not happen," he said.