Eight volunteer coastguard teams have been stood down due to paperwork problems – prompting fears over clifftop safety in Shetland.
The cliff rescue teams were “taken offline” in May – and have yet to be reinstated.
It comes after new managers – brought in during a national reorganisation of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency earlier this year – could not find documents confirming the eight teams had completed the most recent rope rescue training.
The teams were ordered to stand down until refresher training was provided and the recorded updated.
But now several experienced coastguard volunteers have withdrawn their services over their recent treatment by management.
A Lerwick volunteer was dismissed two weeks ago for failing to follow “radio protocol”, leading several of his colleagues to stand down.
An MCA spokeswoman offered an assurance that the islands’ coastguard rescue helicopter would respond to any emergency on the coastline.
However, Shetland’s community safety and resilience board has voiced fears that the service will not be back in place before the winter weather sets in.
Chairman Alastair Cooper said: “With the winter coming, and it’s not many weeks away, we need to be reassured everything is in place as soon as possible so these teams can do what they need to do.”
An MCA spokeswoman said the organisation took all training, including rope rescue, extremely seriously and it was undertaken at the highest professional level.
She said: “In this instance, an administrative procedure had not been carried out correctly which meant that it was not possible to verify the training records of each team member.
“HM Coastguard had no other option, given its understandably high standards over potentially life-saving training, than to stand down the team from rope rescue until refresher training and assessment has taken place.”
She said the agency wanted to get the teams on the refresher training as soon as possible.
As well as the Sumburgh-based search and rescue helicopter being on stand-by for an emergency, coastguard rescue teams from outside Shetland could also be drafted in, she added.