Makes one wonder if the Tory losses in Cameronshire had anything to do with his myopic view of the Military Covenant...:cool:

I thought that two, moving the staff from Lynham in as well must add up to several thousand disgruntled voters.

Twas ever thus, I'm afraid. I'm not saying you should put up with it, you shouldnt. Make as much noise as you can and I hope it gets some sort of results. However, I wouldnt expect quick progress.

Its not right and accom like this was one of the motivators behind my PVR in 99. Not much the Staish can do about it. The blame lies much much further up the chain than that. And those that made the decision are now in the House Of Lords and couldnt give a flying one any more now than they did do then.

Either our average breaking points happen to coincide with the exact length of the waiting lists for repairs or they only ever have the assets / bother to fix the items being made the most noise about.
After several reports and lots of chasing them up my final report on the leak dripping through my ceiling went along with a jam jar of the brown smelly ‘water’ that had been dripping for months. I requested it be tested and asked for copies of the results so I could know if it was rusty water or something worse (there was a toilet and shower room above). The repair team turned up within the week but they never sent any test results so I still don’t know what was dripping all that time!
I would actually have more respect if I thought the waiting list was dealt with on a proper priority system but it seems it’s just he who shouts loudest.:ugh:

MD, there was certainly an effective priority system in Cyprus. A totally blocked drain was fixed in a couple of hours.

At Halton child safety features were fixed within the day. A cooker hood took less than a week. However there is little effective proactive maintenance. Wait until the gutter falls down; wait until some complains of the tree growing up through the drain.

At Cranditz however, with no children in the qtr, a broken drain cover in the garden was never fixed.

A key feature as well as shouting loudest is having someone on hand to open the quarter - not easy if both are serving.

Now if you had a floating Duck House in your pond that might get priority repairs..

When I married in 1970 (yes, I am old), I was posted to RAF Church Fenton where there was absolutely no accommodation, not even hirings. Not even mouldy ones.

I sold my sports car (my only possession) and bought a new house for £4100 (that is not a misprint). Needless to say I have always lived in my own houses and made considerable amount of money selling them when posted.

However, I hear times have now changed and property does not appreciate much, at present. But they will in the long run.

But there is always a flip side. New houses are now cheap; builders will even fiddle the deposit for you. So are interest rates. If you are posted & cannot sell at a good price, then let the house out. There is a big market for letting. You will always be able to let your house, especially near a large military base.

My ex father in law made a fortune on buying on posting & never selling when posted subsequently, quote 'never sell a brick'. You can do that too. If you wish.

Ok, maybe you will tell me... 'Derek get real'... Back in 1970 we had nothing, but accommodation was the priority. If you want nice holidays, flash cars, iPads etc, that is up to you. But my top priority back in 1970 was a modern clean home for my wife and I.

Stands back and waits for comments :p

I wish I owned a £150,000 sports car that I could sell.

Silly... I used the money to pay for the deposit, not buy the whole house. Unlike today, we had to find our own deposit. Interestingly, the monthly mortgage was less than the quarters rent!

Property will always be your best investment ... in the long run. Even when you retire or the kids have flown, you can downsize and buy back that sportscar :)

If you want to see what will happen to prices over the net decade, look over to Japan who had the same banking bust 20 years ago. Most Housing is still valued at less in nominal terms than it did in 1990 over there. They have had record low rates now for 20 years.

Yes, there is money to be made from rental, but unfortunately the boomer generation killed the goose that laid the golden egg through excessive greed and voting in those politicians who chose to support policies and regulation that saw a trebling of prices in under 10 years.

And look at the mess that has now gotten us in!

The greed of the speculators and mortgage mafia led directly to the years of boom and bust. Chiselling little $hits in red braces and shiny suits would turn up in their black BMWs, spend 30 sec 'pricing' a house way above its value, safe in the knowledge that they'd snouted up a percentage for themselves....and would soon be able to afford that symbol of 1980's yuppytime excess, the Porsche 911.

A 2-bedroom semi in Witney cost £34K in 1984; according to the inflation calculator, that should now cost £94K. But the true figure is well over twice that.

Blunty Towers, at £4100 in 1970, would nowadays cost £53177 if house prices hadn't been so ridiculously distorted by Thatcher-greed.

Those wretched, greedy estate agents who encouraged house prices to grow at twice the rate of inflation whilst most salaries increased only at the same rate as inflation, are probably the chief cause of the UK's current financial situation.

What do you expect from a job that legally requires no professional training? Yet estate agents are often responsible for valuing the most expensive investment o our lives. Combined with moral hazard that saw bank profits rise with larger mortgages and mortgage backed investments that allowed wanton increases in secured debt, and very lax regulation pushed by ed balls and brown, it was a disaster waiting to happen and one predicted by the more conservative of us.

Ah ha, I thought that my comment would generate more than just a few lines about mould in MQs ;)

Of course, one should never borrow more than one can repay. But greedy bankers twisted our arms to do just that, then winged to HMG to bail them out when their customers fell on bad times.

But there are always silver linings.

1. Houses have never been so affordable nor so easy to purchase. But they will not always be.

2. Quarters in general have never been in such bad condition, nor so different from a modern newly built house. Hence, the new build is vastly prefered.

3. A career in the armed forces is no longer a job for life. You will need to find your own accommodation eventually. The sooner you do it the better.

You're not wrong there, Blunty old bean!

Son-in-law, newly commissioned, near two senior officers discussing the need to buy a house as their career end was approaching: "This is something you will need to consider."

"I already have a house Sir, well two actually"

With regard to the BZN MQ's we were unfortunate enough to live in one for 18 months. That was 40 odd years ago and I'm not surprised they have deteriorated, as they apparantly have.

Beagle is spot on re. Estate Agents and developers. There was lots of prime building land available around Carterton in the early '70s. Builders were buying out the smallholdings dotted around the place but, have got planning permission to build, they just sat tight and waited for the inevitable price rise that a housing shortage would bring. Gazumping was rife and Estate Agents were taking deposits on the strength of an 'artist impression' ie I put down £150 deposit on a house yet to be built, priced at £5100. Nine months later it was finally released for sale, though not yet built, at £11500! It was way beyond my means but I eventually managed to buy a modest semi for £7500. The next phase of identical houses, released 3 weeks later, were priced at £8500 and guys queued all night down in Witney hoping to buy one. On the strength of this situation I believe a law was passed requiring Builders to build within six months of obtaining planning permission.

with the inevitable get out of jail free clause.

Down the road from us a plot of land between two roads was sold to the church for a new vicarage. They built on half the length but grabbed the better wider half. The other half of land was put up for sale for £45k. It was unused for at least 15 years. Eventually a 3-bed house was put in the site, facing sideways, on the market for £349k. It is now worth £249k.

I can remember a JT at Brize struggled to get a mortgage and deposit together and find a house, asked the then PMC if there was any chance in the slightest of him being posted within the next year... PMC responded no.... House bought and less than six weeks later he was on his way to his new posting to St Athans and not a happy Chappie

NL, nothing changes.

First tour, marrieds were told the rumour about the station closing were false go ahead buy a house. Many did and the station closed.

It was either a 'real' secret to confuse the Russians or a change of policy to change a bolthole into a permanent move. That Cottesmore was a 2-sqn station and we were a 3-sqn one didn't figure. The mess had about 30 rooms and needed about 60.

I believe it was always a good sign a Station was closing when, the runway was lengthened, and general improvements were made all round.