METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE CLOSURES

That this House opposes the proposal of the Meteorological Office to centralise forecast production at its Exeter headquarters and close a number of major offices across the United Kingdom including Belfast, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and London; notes that the Belfast Office also provides forecast and warning services to the Army, RAF and Royal Navy for operations within Northern Ireland and a valuable service to the Department of Regional Development and Roads Service in relation to gritting; deplores the prospect that the valuable service provided by the local office could be lost to the region together with local knowledge and expertise about local weather effects leading to a reduced level of service to government departments, agencies and the public in general; and believes that this proposal is contrary to the stated aim of becoming more integrated with government and regional assemblies and will lead to a degraded service, especially in Northern Ireland.