RNLI and new Ofcom charges

[SaltyCod]

I have just recieved this mail from a friend...thought I should copy and post it here.

RNLI and new Ofcom charges


The background: (From the Telegraph..)

LIFEBOAT crews fear being scuppered by crippling new charges for using their radios from Ofcom, the communications regulator. The RNLI could see the price of using its VHF emergency frequencies rise to £250,000 under plans to charge the full commercial rate.

The charity, which saves hundreds of lives every year currently pays an annual £48,000 at a discounted rate of 50 per cent. It relies on donations and fears the move will have a disastrous impact on fundraising. Peter Bradley, RNLI operations staff officer, said: 'It's a lot of money when you think in terms of lifeboat days and little old ladies collecting pound coins.'

'We could buy several inshore lifeboats for the same amount.'

'The Government rely on us to provide this search-and-rescue service, at a cost of £124 million a year, but they want to charge us for doing it!'

Ofcom has set out plans to bring 'market forces' into maritime and civil aviation communications in a policy it calls Administered Incentive Pricing.

£250,000 represents an awful lot of charity collections, even more so in the current economic climate so, if like me you feel strongly enough about this, please sign the petition below.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/RNLI-RF-licences/

Please forward to anyone you think might help by signing the petition.

 

[DoubleVision]

Signed and sent far and wide

 

[ebbtide]

This was first posted on 24/10/ with a prompt update fromTwister Ken and yet again yesterday.
Wake up in the back there!

 

[admillington]

Signed and sent to 20 other interested parties.

 

[leomagill]

Now copied to another 2 boaty forums.
And signed of course.

 

[Nick_H]

can't follow the maths, they pay £48k now at a 50% discounted rate, so where does the £250k come from?

 

[jhr]

Can't find the thread now, but I thought this story had been trashed? iirc, the RNLI will end up paying less, not more, though of course that wouldn't make as good a story for the Torygraph..... /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

 

[chanelyacht]

Even if the charging was brought in, the RNLI could pay for 2,200 years worth from current reserves alone...

Their comment about "buying inshore lifeboats" with it makes me laugh. You could buy many more with the company cars kept at Poole...

 

[NorthUp]

" buy many more with the company cars kept at Poole... "
so if you work for a charity you should not be able to drive to work?
As far as cash reserves go, they have lost about £4 million worth of boats in the last year, a pretty good arguement for substantial reserves
The RNLI isn't perfect, but just consider the alternative!

 

[SVB]

Signed & sent.

 

[timbartlett]

The Ship radio licences on the RNLI boats are discounted, and there will be no change to those.

But Ofcom have put up a so-called "consultation document" which -- assuming it goes ahead -- could push the price of radio licences for coast stations (such as RNLI boathouses) up to just under £1500 per channel. And yes, it is official. It's not just a Torygraph scare story.

The "consultation" document was issued with no publicity and in the height of the summer holidays, so my guess is that Ofcom were hoping it would quietly slip through. But now that they've been spotted, I reckon that their fallback position will be to pretend that they were never intending to clobber the charities, and give them a substantial discount. Ofcom will emerge smelling of roses and we will all tell ourselves how good it is that we live in a democracy. Meanwhile, Ofcom will be laughing all the way to the bank with the £1500 per channel that they will be collecting from harbour masters, marinas, yacht clubs, etc..
Bloody parasites!

 

[nonitoo]

I have received the following from the petitions section after submitting my name some time ago.

Read the Government’s response

Although this petition is not due to close until 8 October 2009, Ofcom have contacted the Prime Minister’s office, and asked that we publish the following clarification:

Ofcom has been consulting on introducing spectrum pricing to the aeronautical and maritime sectors. We are doing this because radio spectrum is a scarce and valuable resource and lots of different users want to use it. It’s important that it is managed as efficiently as possible, because then society as a whole can get the most out of the finite amount available. One of the ways that we try to achieve this is by charging users for the spectrum - or airwaves - they use. This already includes a huge array of public and private sector users, including MOD, NHS, ambulance, police and taxi firms. But we recognise the special position of safety of life charities, which is why they receive a 50 per cent discount on their current fees.

What we are proposing in the maritime case is simply to change the ways fees are worked out so that they aren’t based on the admin costs of issuing a licence, but on how much spectrum is used. Under our proposals the RNLI might actually pay less than they do now. We estimate that they could pay around £20,000 compared to the £40,000 that they currently pay.

The consultation closed at the end of last month. Ofcom will now take stock of the responses, and any updates will be posted on the Ofcom website (www.ofcom.org.uk).

Tom

 

[Mike_Martin]

[ QUOTE ]
can't follow the maths, they pay £48k now at a 50% discounted rate, so where does the £250k come from?

[/ QUOTE ]

Haven't been around for a while but I can help with this.

The fee paid by the RNLI is for their nationwide use of private channels 0 and 00 and it was based on the pre-spectrum charging regime. Now five years later it isn't anything like 50% but it was back in 03 when I organised it.

Mike

 

[timbartlett]

I rather doubt whether anyone at Ofcom seriously thought they could get away with snatching a quarter of a million quid from the collecting boxes of one of the country's favourite (and most influential) charities.

I suspect that what has happened is exactly what they intended. We will all be so pleased that the RNLI has been saved all this extra expense, so pleased with ourselves for having spotted it, and so grateful for Ofcom's "generosity" that we won't notice the fact that every harbour, marina and yacht club is being badly stung.

I seem to remember, from school biology lessons, that successful parasites do not kill their hosts.