A DORCHESTER jewellers has got behind the Dorset Echo’s ‘Save Our Life-savers Campaign’.

Goldcrest Jewellers has joined the army of supporters by having a petition in its shop in the Hardye Arcade.

Owners Neil and Donna Strudwick said they were delighted to join in with the rest of the community to try and save the Portland Coastguard Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Weymouth.

In new plans currently under consultation, the Portland centre, along with eight others in the UK, would close and all rescue operations for those areas would be co-ordinated from a supercentre, possibly located in Southampton or Portsmouth.

But the actual site has not been confirmed and the Echo’s campaign in association with Weymouth and Portland Borough Council aims to convince the government and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to site the supercentre in the borough instead.

This will safeguard jobs and ensure that coastguard controllers with knowledge of the Dorset coast are co-ordinating rescues.

Mr Strudwick said: “We need a coastguard centre here. We need the local knowledge.

“You can’t put a value on the current centre because you can’t put a value on life.”

Mrs Strudwick added: “If it works, why move it? It’s been here for God knows how long so why move it now?

“Considering we are a seaside town and we have the sailing and the water sports, this is the place for it.”

She added: “It needs a big push from the community which I am sure it is getting. We are really pleased to join the fight.”

More than 150 people turned out for a peaceful walk in Weymouth on Saturday to call on the government and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to site a new coastguard supercentre in the area.