WHEN coastguard Bernie Cother scans the horizon on his next shift he will be blinking to remind himself where he is.

Gone will be familiar landmarks such as Souter Lighthouse, as seen from the Tynemouth Coastguard Station.

Instead, he will be met with new vistas of Bridlington and Flamborough, as the eastern region headquarters takes over responsibility for 180 miles of coastline stretching to the Scottish border.

Mr Cother, who as Commercial Services Union branch secretary fought the closure of the Tynemouth station, spoke of his sadness at its demise and his determination to rise to new challenges.

He said: "We are resigned to the move. One of the main concerns was the loss of local knowledge we have built up over the years.

"How can they expect people in Bridlington to know the coastline as well as we do here?"

But Mr Cother is confident the move will not adversely affect rescue services.

He said: "The new system will be made to work - it has to. We coastguards are resourceful and are used to dealing with adversity."

Out of 24 workers at Tynemouth, only six have chosen relocation.

Deputy district controller Stuart McGill reassured people the service would not suffer.

He said: "The new digitised system will allow for better coverage of the area, both by radio and phone.

"We will coordinate incidents in the same way, with exactly same the resources, in terms of lifeboats and the RAF helicopters.

"It is an end of an era. I feel quite sad about it, but we have to move on and look to the future."