Cleveland Smugglers

EDM number 64 in 1994-95, proposed by Frank Cook on 21/11/1994.

That this House notes with acute concern the predicted impact of the Treasury's fundamental expenditure review on the counter contraband staff of Customs and Excise in Cleveland should its proposals be implemented fully; notes with alarm that these proposals would create a single administrative district covering an area from the Scottish border down to the South bank of the Humber on the East coast and the Furness peninsula on the West, that its base would be located in Leeds, that this area will be 'policed' 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by a mere 70 staff, this being a reduction of 95 on the current complement and that none of the 70 will be base-located between the Humber and the Tyne, so leaving Tees and Hartlepool, the fourth busiest port in the country badly under-manned and wide-open to activities of the felon; notes that the 2 tonnes of cannabis recently impounded at Falmouth was probably destined for Hartlepool and that the 1.8 tonnes lost off Sandsend last month engaged staff not only from Teesport but from the Tyne, Newcastle Airport and Workington; regrets that senior management in the Customs and Excise Service seem unwilling or unable to resist these unreasonable proposals; and therefore calls upon Her Majesty's Government to think again as a matter of urgency before exposing the North East coast to the unhindered attention of smugglers and drug traffickers.

This motion has been signed by a total of 19 MPs.