Proposals to close Northern Ireland's only coastguard control centre "will not diminish safety" at sea, according to the head of the UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The Irish Independent reports that Vice-Admiral Sir Alan Massey insisted coastal emergency services would be "enhanced" under plans to streamline the British coastguard station network.

Nineteen stations will be reduced to just two 24-hour centres - in the south of England and at Aberdeen on Scotland's east coast. Five day-only centres would also be retained, with one located at either Liverpool or Bangor.

The MCA chief executive said that local knowledge could be enhanced by centres providing services over a larger area.

But a union representative accused the MCA of proposing a skeleton service that could put lives in jeopardy.

Ian Graham of the NI branch of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents staff at the Bangor centre, said: ""All the knowledge that people in the station have will be lost forever and that will put everyone who uses the sea and inland waterways at risk."

The Irish Independent has more on the story HERE.