Yes, the Station Commander and his staff at Brize Norton.

If you drive through the back gate it takes you directly into Carterton.

And if they mean side roads as in the A40, then I guess they must have big roads elsewhere in the country.

Silly question I suppose but doesn't anyone here understand the concept of a "choke point"? The John Radcliffe is the end point, it doesn't matter how many potential routes there are - won't you always catch it at the Radcliffe?

I know... It'll piss off the peaceniks in Oxford... :rolleyes:

AA

A local branch of RBL always parades here for repatriations. It is the last section of public road before entering the JR grounds.

Its odd, but when I was serving at RAF Brize Norton we had to take our daughter to the John Radcliffe Hospital for her regular check-ups. On no occasion ever did we pass through or near Carterton since it is not on the most direct route to Oxford. A shorter route would be to turn right, then left onto the A4095 through Curbridge. Of course, there would then be no High Street along the route for the Press and crowds to gather and "pay their respects". :rolleyes:

The route takes in Monahan Way (the Brize Norton village bypass) - this has parking at the sports pavilion coupled with wide grass verges. I'd be pretty sure that anyone wanting to pay their respects could stand there...

This is typical sensationalist journalism that misses the key points, sadly it's been stoked up by some fairly ill-thought out comments by Robathan and the like.

The quickest route from Gate 6 to the Charterville Allotments A40 on-ramp is about 2.5 miles. Instead of turning left along Carterton Road at the Brize Norton mini-roundabout, continue north along Manor Road and Minster Road to the B4477 roundabout.

The proposed processional route along Carterton Road, round the Norton Way roundabout and the Monahan Way roundabout to the B4477 roundabout adds over 1.5 miles to the route. It has clearly not been selected for expediency.

Unfortunately, despite protests, the stupid design of Monahan Way means that RAF Brize Norton still does not have a good road connection with the A40. Alternative proposals for the road to terminate at the Asthall barrow roundabout were rejected.

Certain Cartoontown low-life make a hobby of defacing the place; I sincerely hope that the proposed memorial garden on Monahan Way will be adequately safeguarded.

Moving repatriation to BZN was a gift for the "yes minister" spin meisters. Wootton Basset had long become an embarrassment for HMG where the media saw and reported the weekly repatriations from a war where "not a shot was to be fired in anger" ( remember Dr John Reid - Defence Minister - that's what he said !) - and yet surprisingly, we are approaching 400 killed, not to mention the massive numbers of lives ruined by serious injury. I have not seen ANY views expressed by relatives of the deceased resenting the dedications of the people of WB.

As we are now politically set to withdraw, it seems much better to our 2nd division Defence ministers that this very public evidence of the true cost of a very ill advised foreign venture, is shielded from media attention. ( Those shocking media people keep telling us what is happening - couldn't we close them all down !)

The same HMG has also mysteriously found £260M down the back of the Downing St sofa to fund yet another foreign "misadventure" ( and has reputedly found as much again hidden in the Treasury to fund the next 6 months of Gadaffi's downfall) into yet another nation's private business, in spite of scrapping various defence programmes, and claiming that the Gadaffi venture was costing only tens of millions !

Surprising how the new war is "funded from reserves" - I thought when GB left office, one of his Ministers reported " nothing left in the drawers or safe" ( Mr Byrne ?) - who was right ?
;)

Actually, just to get the facts right here, there is no public record of John Reid saying as defence secretary that "not a shot was to be fired in anger".

What Reid actually said - as he described in parliament - was that troops were there to help the Afghan reconstruction effort, and "would be perfectly happy" to leave without firing a shot.

But regardless of this nuance, this is the kind of phrase that seems bound to come back to haunt the government.

So please, just like you complain when the newspapers or TV News get the facts wrong, check.

Dr (Unhappy) Reid
 

Amendment accepted with good grace !. I daresay Dr Reid should therefore be feeling pretty unhappy with the result of the intervention with it's attendant enormous costs in human life,serious injury and £Bn's cost. Especially so when the achievement or otherwise is reviewed 10 years after we all leave and mind our own business.:sad: History books should be good works of reference for politicans who pursue interventionist policies in faraway lands.

Dave has spoken...
 

Its ok, at PMQ's today 'Nigel Dodds, a DUP MP, asks about the new arrangements being made for the repatriation of servicemen killed abroad.

"Call me Dave" says a lot of thought has gone into how the arrangements will work when repatriation takes place at Brize Norton.

Politics blog + PMQs - live | Politics | guardian.co.uk

The final route will definitely involve at least one U turn. :*
mmitch.

Brize Norton Back Gate
 

An earlier post suggested that the proposed repatriation route has been used before at Brize Norton - this is incorrect.

Exiting through Gate 6 has been proposed for repatriation corteges because it is the nearest exit gate to the new purpose-built repatriation centre on the south side of the runway at Brize; corteges would then not have to cross the runway approach with potential (inappropriate) delays at the runway 26 end traffic lights on their way to the main gate.

Before moving to Lyneham, repatriation ceremonies at Brize took place on the north side of the runway, on the airfield side of the Brize terminal building - this led to the natural use of the Station main exit road down to the main Station entrance (gate 2).

There are obviously no plans to use either of the 2 current main exits from Brize.

Speed bumps scupper repatriation vigils

...... which, of course, is narrower than Carterton and has speed bumps and traffic chicanes!

But I do predict that Brize Norton village will become the natural gathering place for people wishing to pay their respects, not at a specially built "viewing area"!