'It's hit people hard': Coastguard volunteers no longer paid for callouts

When Dr Kelly Stockdale gets an emergency callout she drops everything and heads straight out to the coastguard station on the Berwickshire coast.

She has been a volunteer in Eyemouth for the past two years after moving to the area and feeling she wanted to give something back to the community.

However, like thousands of other Coastguard Rescue Officers (CROs), she has been affected by news that they will no longer be paid for responding to emergency callouts following a court ruling.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said it needed to make changes after the Court of Appeal upheld a judgement classing responders as "workers" while they were carrying out their duties.

A number of volunteers from across the UK contacted BBC Your Voice to express their concerns about the situation.

Many of them said they wished to remain anonymous but called the move "unfair" and "absolutely disgraceful".

Stockdale, a university lecturer, said the planned changes had "hit people quite hard".

"We are very happy with the models that we had, given we had some remuneration for our time," she said.

"We are emergency responders, we work for an emergency service the same as other emergency responders do.

"None of us do it for the money - the main thing is the money allows us to do what we do."

CROs like Stockdale make up the bulk of the Coastguard Rescue Service (CRS), the volunteer arm of HM Coastguard.

There are more than 3,500 of them and they are officially classed as volunteers, but can claim about £11 per hour for responding to callouts or undertaking training exercises.

A minimum payment equivalent to three hours – about £33 – can be claimed even if in an incident is resolved before that.

However, the MCA is to remove that payment from later in the year after a judgement from the Court of Appeal in January.

It ruled that while CROs were described as "volunteers", a contract came into existence whenever they attended callouts or training sessions for which they had a right to claim payment.

Stockdale said the remuneration had not been a factor for her in taking up the role - as was the case for her colleagues.

"I just moved to a coastal community two years ago and as part of being part of the community I wanted to give back," she said.

"I think that's what most CROs want to do.

"We see what it is like along our coastlines and we want to be able to help and support our communities."

She said the role could be "quite intensive" especially during training and then they needed to be ready to be called out at any time.

"I can be in the middle of cooking dinner, I can be in the middle of work and you drop everything," she said.

"I turn the stove off and shout instructions to the children.

"Within seconds we have our kit on and we are in the car driving up to the station ready to respond.

"It is something we all take really seriously - we are all committed, we are all dedicated, we are all really proud of what we do."

She said they remained "hopeful" that some amendments or adjustments could be made and that the MCA would "listen to its workers".

However, she said many volunteers were weighing up what the impact would be and added that if some CROs decided not to continue it would have an effect.

"If people do leave, it is the knowledge they take with them," she said.

"Many of our team have been doing this role for a long time, they have the local knowledge of the area."

The MCA said the court decision meant it needed to move to a "revised volunteer model" in order to protect the future of the service.

It said that would still protect "choice, flexibility and the ability for people to volunteer alongside their primary employment".

"We deeply value and recognise the significant service CROs provide along our coastline, and we will be supporting them during this transition," it added.

"The CROs will continue to maintain a robust, effective search and rescue response, ensuring the highest quality of service and levels of safety."