So what other building 'follies' and moves are going on?
I heard the following:
- A brand spanking new HQ and hangar at RAF Syerston - when 18 months later they are still not able to fly cadets. Further rumour is that they now want the runway resurfaced!
- The move of all supplier training to Worthy Down and the rumour is there is no money to do it.
- Move of Gunner trg from Honington to Halton, when the top brass are trying to arrange Operation SAVE-CRANWELL by expecting to move all RAF initial training to Cranwell from Halton by 2018. Haven't they heard "there is no money"?
- Everyone is chockablock in HQ Air after everyone told them that the rationalisation of MOD and HQ PTC would not fit - now there is overflow at Halton and we've had to move loads of staff out of the HQ to FHQs on the MoBs (which also doesn't work).
- The great Brize Norton debacle is just that. No-where to park, people squeezed in like sardines and people still living in quarters at Lyneham. Looking forward to Op BOLTHOLE in a few years time when the runway needs doing.
- Leuchars still has a RAF contingent as Lossiemouth needs a diversion the other side of the Grampians for QRA. Kinloss runway stays open as Lossie's crash diversion. Some great savings there then!
- The move of flying from Wyton to Cranwell and Wyton has been a total disaster. No one thought that an AEF/UAS might want to fly at weekends at Wyton with all the support ot needs (I kid you not).
- They are struggling to find language instructors for the recently moved Defence School of Languages - Beaconsfield was near to some native speakers, whereas Shrivenham in the Cotswolds isn't!
The list of scr3w ups is just unbelievable, and this latest Lyneham debacle is just another. Is there NO-ONE that can provide a single coherent strategy for basing for the next 20 years that is funded and we can stick to?
Whilst we're at it. Why have we still got airfields at:
Kenley
Kirknewton
Little Rissington
Weathersfield
Weston-on-the-Green
Woodvale
Barkston Heath
Syerston
Predannack
Topcliffe
When there is absolutely no other core Service activity happening at these establishments? Surely, they are the 'brownfield' choice of champions for the Govt's housing development plans?
It doesn't seem to be that difficult, but as ever, meddling by those with vested interests far up the 'slippery pole' seem to override common sense and the call by those with some grey matter between their ears. The lunacy of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and their Regional Prime Contractors ripping off the taxpayers by at least 100% of the going rate by a local tradesman/builder is just another indication of waste. The fact that it is full of scribblies really does prove what we've long suspected. How the Scribbly Branch has survived all these years of cuts is beyond me. If ever there was an area of our branches that could be FTRS'd, Civil Servantised or even contracted out, then it's the Pers Supt Branch!
There you go, that's one area of SDSR sorted.
It really just beggars belief! I think I need to have a lie down in the garden under the Sunday Times to calm down...
iRaven