WEYMOUTH and Portland ’s coastguard lifesavers are ready for the Olympic and Paralympic summer.

Year’s worth of planning and organisation will culminate in the coastguard response over the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Coastguard liaison officers will be in a series of Gold, Silver and Bronze commands across the county together with other emergency services including Dorset Police and the fire service.

The main base of operations will be the Maritime Rescue and Co-ordination Centre on Weymouth harbourside, while on the ground the Portland and Wyke Regis Coastguard teams will work on a rota to man an Initial Response Team (IRT) vehicle while will be on patrol across the Olympics and the cultural Olympiad events taking place in the borough.

The IRT will be a 4x4 vehicle with three coastguard rescue officers in and will be manned by officers doing five-hour shifts for ten-hours a day.

The vehicle will have cliff rescue equipment so that the first responders can go over the cliff and stabilise the casualty until a team comes to get the casualty.

The idea is to provide an immediate response to any incidents and then the Wyke Regis and Portland Coastguard teams will be able to provide back-up or be tasked to another incident.

Weymouth Sector Manager Rob Sansom said that they had been planning for the event based on other large-scale operations in the past includingv and there was nothing the summer could throw at them that they couldn’t handle.

He said: “It’s about keeping it flexible and open and that’s something the coastguards are good at.

“We are good at reacting to changing conditions.”

He added: “There’s nothing the Olympics will throw at us that we won’t be able to cope with.”

The IRT team will be roaming across the area between the key viewing areas including Lulworth and Bincleaves, but will be mainly centred around the Weymouth Beach and harbourside area.

Crews will be being proactive and delivering safety messages to those on shore and on the water.

Mr Sansom said that the key messages for people across the summer were to enjoy the area but to be safe.

He said: “On the water the message is wear lifejackets and on the shore it’s the national campaign of don’t drink and drown.”

The IRT will not operate during the Paralympic games when visitors and spectator numbers are expected to be fewer.

District Officer Mark Rodaway said that the coastguard response was a result of four years of work, together with partners like the police.

He added that they would be running ‘business as usual’ across the summer.

He said: “A vessel in difficulty in the Olympic period will be the same as a vessel in difficulty at any other time. But because of the anticipated number of spectators on shore and at sea across the south coast we are anticipating a very heavy work load.”

Price of park and ride quadruples

PARK and ride costs will more than quadruple during the Olympics in Weymouth, it has been confirmed.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), which is taking control of all the park and ride facilities including the Mount Pleasant site by Weymouth’s Relief Road during Games-time, is now charging drivers an advance fee of £14.50.

This is more than four times the normal summer rate of £3.50 at the county council-run service – and another increase from £10 charge plus a £2.50 booking fee that outraged drivers back in November.

The £14.50 fees are also being levied at the Weymouth park and walk site at Lodmoor and other temporary park and ride sites at Monkey’s Jump, Dorchester , and Kingston Maurward College.

The ODA says the initial charges were ‘early bird prices’ which were ‘flagged up from the outset on our website’.

It said the increase from the usual summer rate reflected the additional costs of extra staffing and security, which are central to making the facility a success.

In November when the Echo contacted the ODA for a response about the triple jump, a spokesman said: “The £10 charge applies to all Games-time park and ride facilities outside London, not just those in Dorset, but Blue Badge holders will be able to park for free.”

Yet now an ODA spokesman has said the new fee of £14.50 had been expected since June last year.

The spokesman said: “I cannot give you an exact date when this was decided, but the bookings website was very clear about the position from the point at which it was launched in June.”

He added: “This increase in park and ride charges has been in place since January.

“It was flagged up from the outset on our website and on the booking site, making clear that lower-rate charges were only available for a limited period to promote early bookings.

“We believe that the charges remain good value – given that a single ticket will cover up to seven people.”

Current park and ride users are being encouraged to find alternative modes of transport such as walking, cycling and bus services.