Raf Innsworth To Close
 

RAF base closure hits 1,350 posts
BBC News
16th June 2005

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...re/4099640.stm


Many jobs at the RAF base will relocate to High Wycombe
RAF Innsworth in Gloucestershire is to close with the loss of 1,350 posts, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

The MoD has decided to relocate the Personnel & Training Command (PTC) from Innsworth to RAF High Wycombe, Bucks.

In a statement the MoD said there would be an overall reduction of 1,000 military and civilian posts, although many personnel would transfer.

The MoD said the decision was made because of what it called new security challenges.

"The decision to relocate the PTC headquarters with the RAF's operational headquarters at High Wycombe will deliver significant efficiency savings and a more modern and effective command headquarters structure for the RAF," the statement said.

Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said: "This programme of modernisation is vital if we are to create a flexible and adaptable RAF, equipped to deal with the challenges of the new world.

"I recognise that this announcement will cause disappointment in the Innsworth area. We are doing everything possible to mitigate the impact on the staff concerned."

The PCS Trade Union greeted the announcement with some dismay.

"We are concerned that the decision, which flies in the face of published government policy, has gone virtually uncommented on by local politicians and media, they said in a statement.

"We hope that it is not too late to reverse this ill-considered decision."

Dreadful news - I'm sure that it will take of all of a decade for anyone to notice :p

even longer to wait for the gulf war medal!!

Well, if it makes a dent in the fat end of the upside-down rank structure triangle of the RAF, it gets my vote!

PreTend Command, Parents and Toddlers Command, take your pick. Shame to leave such a nice part of the world, but what's to do?

What used to get my goat was the view of the Procurement Palace in Bristol. I've never been in, but from the outside there were modern glass office blocks, fountains, sculpted gardens, covered walkways and chockablock full of civil servants shovelling subsidised lunches into their faces.

Reminded me of when I did the ATPL exams at Aviation House, Gatwick - the Hanging Gardens of Babylon - where pikey examinees were held back from the subsidised canteen for the first 15 minutes of the lunch hour so permanent staff could get their noses in the trough without interference from the 'ordinaries'.

Reading back, I know I sound like a pinko commie faggot, but I'm not. It's just when you pop along the corridor to the bogs in your 1930's built hangar and the place stinks, with mildew and peeling paint on the walls, you wonder if a civil servant would tolerate it. I believe it's called 'minimum military requirement'. Acceptable in Iraq maybe, but not at an established peace-time UK military training establishment. IMHO.

Me thinks that this will be the time to buy property in the High Wycombe area. Could be a nice little earner due to the shortage of FQs and the need for ERA properties.
;)

But then again if they find out you own a house there, it might become your next posting. Heaven forbid.

PTC is destined for Halton.

Thank goodness for that. Now hopefully we may see some action and results from those pen pushing, bean counters. I have had a fair amount of wasted time and effort dealing with those people and look forward seeing a vast improvement in the way that department operates.

Dining-in nights will be for Gp Capts and above only then?!? :D Perhaps a Wg Cdr as Mr Vice!

Yet another example of long term planning & value for money over the defence budget?

Within a year of deciding to establish both the MoD Medal Office (only opened by a Govt Minister in March 05) and the Joint Casualty Section at Innsworth, the Government decides to close the place. Money well spent. I think not

Rej. Did that a couple of years ago.

Now where's that rent book.........

About time to! The RAF infrastructure is a legacy from a bygone age. If you started today with a blank piece of paper, then you would only ever build one HQ for such a small force.

Please can I be part of the wrecking crew? I'll pay good money!:p

Of course, it makes sense really. Currently the two HQs (stc and ptc) don't talk to each other, indeed as separate TLBs they actually compete with each other for resources. By collocating we can have just one TLB, thus allowing decision-makers to use the same songsheet, whilst also greatly reducing the combined starcount. Just like with the RN HQ/TLB merger (!!??).

Whatever happened to moving OUT of the expensive south east??

Is this just a move to get people back into quarters, as no b@gger can afford anything decent near HW???

Don't laugh too soon. The demise of yet another light blue organisation just shows the decline in the size of the force and is another nail in the coffin of the RAF's independence. How much longer can you justify any kind of separate service?

Some may think that is a good thing, and in some ways it might be, but I don't think it bodes well at all.

So much for the primacy of airpower.
:(

Monty77 - Quite a number of uniformed folk work at the Abbey Wood Palace and they also need to eat.

Apart from that, closing down Units, eg Innsworth, costs money. MOD has bust its Piggy Bank so even 'Spend to Save' may not be a viable option unless Gordon can be persuaded to top-up the kitty.

lm

If I hadn't been reading this thread, then I would have been blissfully unaware the place was closing--- and so, I suspect, will be a few thousand others which leads me to wonder will they now go to the expense of informing all those of us who have to contact them at age 60 (still some years off yet) in order to get our money.


The cynic in me says this will be a low priority somehow.

Unless I receive formal change of address notification from PMA, how will I - or any other RAFResO member - know to whom to write to advise of any change of address?

Something which was the chief cause of difficulty when attempting to call-out reservists for GW2...

As I discovered when doing my 7 weeks PVR-porridge at Innsworth. A task which took me 2 days to pinpoint - and 6 weeks to report. But by then the give-a-****-ometer was barely registering! Have to say though, that the peeps I worked with were very on-side and would bend over backwards to sort things out in a Serviceman's favour. The GpCapt I worked for knew I'd been stitched up by the system and was quite happy for me to do whatever I wanted. Good bloke - and a breath of fresh air compared to the little $hit who'd stitched me up. Who was later promoted....:yuk:

Beagle

Not a problem, reservists are no longer responding to call ups!!

:ok:

6Z3

I'll bet you a pint that we keep 2 TLBs - otherwise we might have to get rid of a 3-star post!

:O