The head of Falmouth Coastguard has said mariners should not notice any change when station staff relocate for two weeks during refurbishment works.

More than 20 staff from the station will be sent to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s new National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) in Fareham in early October for training while engineers replace old infrastructure with new systems which will allow greater communication between centres.

Staff will visit the new centre in shifts, while Cornwall’s radio aerials and telephone lines will be redirected, meaning anyone contacting the Falmouth station will still be put in contact with Falmouth staff, and local rescue teams and helicopter services will remain unaffected.

James Instance, the manager of Falmouth Coastguard Station, said: “Calls to Falmouth Coastguard will be answered by someone who works here, but who will be in the NMOC.

“Our entire aim is that it’s unnoticeable to anyone who would usually speak to us. The fact we’re not operated out of here will be unnoticed.”

The coastguard said the work was part of a process of building a more resilient network which could provide support if one of the stations had to stop operating, and was not part of plans to centralise all operations in Fareham.

Mr Instance said: “Right now if we caught fire, we would be knocked out and wouldn’t be able to listen to the aerials around the county.

“What’s happening is that we’ll go into the cloud, into the network so we can now access those aerials and phone lines from other stations, so we’re becoming more resilient.

“When we come back between October 17 to 20 we will be fully back in that room but will be supported by Fareham and other areas.

“Brixham closes in November but all of their phone lines will be answered either here in Falmouth or in Fareham.”