The Ministry of Defence is to close RAF Halton within six years the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
Following November’s announcement that RAF Halton would be one of 91 military sits that the MOD would be disposing of by 2040, the Defence Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon has confirmed.
Sir Michael confirmed the move in a letter to Aylesbury MP David Lidington.
The decision is part of the MOD’s ‘Better Defence Estate’ Strategy, tasked with getting the most from the UK’s defence estate and contributing to the government’s housing target.
Mr Lidington expressed his disappointment at the news and questioned the business logic of the decision.
He commented: “I completely understand the reasons why the Ministry of Defence is seeking to rationalise its estate, concentrate its activities into fewer bases and realise the value of surplus land. I can understand too that from an RAF point of view it makes sense to co-locate the training of RAF officers and other ranks in one place.
“However, I find the business case for closing RAF Halton to be unconvincing. In particular, there will be a significant cost to providing new facilities at RAF Cranwell and the RAF has never in the past found a way in which to dispose of its significant liability in respect of Halton House.
“I’ve already spoken to the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon to make clear my concerns and to ask him to provide additional evidence to justify his decision.
“I’ve also pressed him for a commitment that if the closure does go ahead, the Ministry of Defence will do everything that it can to help civilian employees who may face redundancy to find alternative work.”
https://www.contracts.mod.uk/do-feat...etely-by-2022/
So it begins. Former RAF Bicester sold for £3.25M and Bentley Priory and its land was £12.4M. The Defence College of Technical Training cost £230M for phase 1 at former RAF Lyneham - which was just for the British Army's REME (the RN and RAF have now decided to stay put at HMS Sultan and RAF Cosford due to costs and not wanting all their eggs in one basket).
I think that David Lidington MP is spot on with his 'value for money' analysis. When RAF Halton's site was valued in total a couple of years ago it was around £40M and then I hear that what is needed at RAF Cranwell could be getting on towards £500M (twice the price of what they have done at Lyneham). So where is the sense in this - I can't imagine that Halton needs more than £40M spending on it to last many more years (even at DIO's favoured contractor's outrageous prices!). I suspect that the movement of Recruit training and SNCO/WO improvement training is someone's vanity project...it is quite simply unaffordable and unnecessary. Selling off packets of land at Halton could quite easily give the extra houses that the Aylesbury Vale District Council needs (which is around 700 if I recall correctly in their latest draft plan as they are already building significant numbers in the local area to meet the Government's housing targets).
Let's hope that Mr Lidington gets his financial review and we see sense prevail as we did eventually see at Lyneham -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-34243439
iRaven