Coastguard drops £6,000 flypast plan

The coastguard rescue helicopter India Juliet, based at Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, had been booked to help celebrate the wedding of coastal safety manager Norman Smee.

The event had been entered in the diary for the wedding reception at the Burley Manor Hotel in the New Forest on July 30.

The coastguard, which is under increasing budget pressures, faces a cost of at least 6,000 each time the rescue helicopter is scrambled.

But when Mr Smee, who was unaware of the arrangement, discovered the diary entry, he immediately cancelled it.

Mark Clark, a spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, explained that requests are placed in the diary but have to be formally approved.

He said: "When Norman found out about it last week, he was really embarrassed and immediately cancelled it. He is a very responsible man.

"There is no way it's happening. It was presumably put in the diary by somebody who had not thought about the ramifications.

"We wish Norman the very best for his wedding but it's a private affair and it will remain so.

"He didn't know anything about it."