Originally Posted by
Ken Scott
When Scampton was 'closed' in the 90s it was planned to sell the land & had already been earmarked as the site of an open prison. Then it was discovered that the planning permission from the 50s for the extension to the runway which altered the course of the road (A19?) that ran past the base required the MOD to straighten it if the place was shut & use of the runway no longer required! Cost approx £4 million.
One of the old bomb dumps was found to be contaminated & the cost to clean it up to modern H&S standards was another £3 million. (Both figures 1990s costs)
This rather spoiled the economics of selling off the place.
I did the Aerosystems Cse at Cranwell in the 90s and there was a 14 year old, Civil Service Wg Cdr equivalent there who was in charge of the team deciding which bases to close, Stu-the-B4stard we called him.
Guess he got the sums wrong in a big way!!!
