The decision to close COTT was made by the Royal Air Force. The RAF offered up COTT to close as a saving measure to save money
To be fair it was one of a number of options offered up by all 3 Services (which would have included cancellation of the carriers, JSF, FRES, The Reds etc etc [there are no sacred cows]) that the Defence Board (which includes the 1SL and CGS) selected as 'viable'. As has been said before the decision to close COTT was probably one of the less painful options that Defence needed to take to try to get close to balancing the books - if it was so important to the 1SL and the RN he would have fought harder to save it (but in doing so would probably have to offer something up to "pay for it" - guess that shows what the 1SL thinks of FW FAA .....!). The Defence Secretary can over-rule any decision on options/savings measures made or offered up (but I guess the Carriers are more useful than COTT
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But why let the truth get in the way of another attempted crab bashing!