BEags,
Tut tut, old boy - what a nasty thing to say!
I have not denied Scampton's illustrious history. Who could attack the historical importance of such a vital base? Respecting history should not be the same as clinging to the past.
The MOD has a responsibility to maintain the external appearance of Scampton in accordance with the listed status it has been given by English Heritage. However, since the station has not been occupied for a long time, a lot of it has been allowed to decay because the MOD's spending priorities lie elsewhere. Now that the defence budget is slowly tightening, it is unlikely that paying to restore a military site's external apperance while having to conduct extensive renovation inside the buildings is a good investment, when other Stns are soon to become somewhat emptier. Scampton is not in a good state of repair.
Kirton, by contrast, is an open, maintained and ready unit with an existing infrastructure and buildings that are up to spec.
In these days of a shrinking defence budget, how can we justify spending millions to maintain the cosmetic appearance of a Stn, however historic, when other stations already exist with the infrastructure to support military tasks?
CRC Scampton is an excellent facility, and it's a terrible shame that it may yet end up as a lone unit at RAF Scampton. If EH are so keen to see the rest of the site restored, they should have been lobbying the MOD for years to maintain it instead of allowing it to decay. They didn't care one jot until the RAF announced the work-up. "English Heritage have a finer sense of military history than the MoD" - what utter tosh. If that's the case, why wasn't a complaint raised about the state of the station? Bear in mind, the MOD cares for Halton House, College Hall, Sandhurst, Dartmouth, Bentley Priory, Amport House and HMS DRYAD. EH should have complained publicly about the state of an historic site.
I'm very sorry, BEags, but if you can't read the irony in my earlier posts, if you're so blinkered in your attitude that you'll resort to claiming I know nothing because I'm a "ground pounding scope dope", and if you think that the RAF should prioritise the past over the future, you need to check your logic. We all take pride in our traditions and our history, but we simply cannot afford to throw money at every piece of history we have because we have a job to do. If you're going to make that claim about Scampton, what about Biggin Hill, Tangmere, Coltishall, and all the other former stations? Where does the money come from?
As for us "mere radar operators", why don't you tell us all how we'd have won the Battle of Britain without Fighter Controllers concentrating our force where it counted, and without the advance warning we provided for Fighter AND Bomber Commands? Your opinion is about as outdated and unhealthy as Scampton's tons of asbestos.
If you'd rather take this up, "Ps-of-S" to "Ps-of-S", feel free to PM me.
[Edited to make factual corrections re EH]
Last edited by tablet_eraser; 29th Dec 2005 at 20:15.