Tag Archives: HM Government

On Monday night (24 April) we received a 999 call from a member of the public reporting a kite surfer in difficulty in Bideford Bay.

The UK Coastguard search and rescue helicopter took this great birds eye footage of the rescue after Croyde and Bideford Coastguard Rescue Teams and the RNLI Appledore Lifeboat Station were sent to the scene.

Luckily the casualty was spotted by a Coastguard and was recovered safe and well by the all-weather lifeboat. Ian Guy, Maritime Operations Controller said: ‘This was extremely good outcome and an excellent example of some great teamwork between our crews. The casualty was located in our search area quickly and thankfully, although cold he was ok. We recommend when kite surfing that you always ensure that you wear the right gear – including a buoyancy aid and a helmet, check the weather forecasts, tell someone your passage plan and practice rescue signals with your instructor in case the worst should happen.’

Footage of the Bideford Bay rescue

At around 01:30 hrs on 7 April, two track workers narrowly avoided being struck by a train at Ascot station. They climbed out of the way, onto platform 1, with little time to spare. Equipment they had placed on the track was struck, causing minor damage to the train.

We have undertaken a preliminary examination into the circumstances surrounding this incident. Having assessed the evidence which has been gathered to date, we have decided to publish a safety digest.

The safety digest will shortly be made available on our website.

Suppliers attending the event will be able to hear presentations about the autonomous last mile resupply themed competition which seeks to develop and demonstrate the use of autonomous systems to deliver mission-critical supplies, focusing on the challenging ‘last mile’ resupply in the land environment.

If you cannot attend the event, sign up for our webinar which will take place on 30 May 2017.

The competition is seeking new technologies, processes and ways of working to improve the way we deliver mission-critical supplies, focusing on the challenging ‘last mile’ resupply in the land environment.

It involves delivering combat supplies from the forward-most location to personnel engaged in combat operations. Although relatively small in distance, these resupply activities are challenging as they are in an environment that is typically hostile, complex and contested. These activities need to quickly and efficiently deliver vital supplies in order to enable successful mission outcomes.

The challenges of this Accelerator competition are to develop and demonstrate:

• Challenge 1: unmanned air and ground load carrying platforms
• Challenge 2: technologies and systems to allow load carrying platforms to operate autonomously
• Challenge 3: technologies to autonomously predict, plan, track and optimise resupply demands from military users

Up to £3 million is available in total across phase 1 and 2 of this themed competition.