Looks as If Brawdys days are numbered BBC News - Cawdor barracks to shut with 600 troops moving to St Athan
Well, interesting that Philip Hammond said the remote Cawdor barracks site was "not fit for purpose - that is the reality".
"It's a very remote, singleton garrison site," he said.
Back in Hunter days in 1976, morale amongst those posted there for a tour wasn't good. The groundcrew weren't happy at being miles from anywhere and the Officers Mess was run by TGWU civilians who weren't terribly flexible. We students liked it though - unlike Valley, the locals were very friendly.
In those days, the M4 stopped at Newport, apart from a couple of small sections near Port Talbot. The A40 from Carmarthen to Haverfordwest was
all single carriageway and it took about 5 hours if you were lucky to get from London to Brawdy...most of which was west of the Severn Bridge.
Hearing of the level of discontent, some MP finally made it to the station. He didn't endear himself to his audience when he began by saying "I didn't realise how far this place was from London", but then a hairy old NCO politely asked him why the mileage allowance rates were so poor. The MP tried to brush this aside as being a trivial question, but was then asked what
his mileage rate was - it was about 3-4 times the RAF rate. Then the NCO continued "So you've come all this way at ()p per mile and you can't even tell us why we only get a quarter of that? If that's a trivial question, heaven help us if anyone wants the answer to something more serious!" - before getting up and walking out...
But flying single seat Hunters in the Summer of '76 took some beating.....
