Government scraps Arborfield Garrison move

Adam Hewitt • Published 19 Oct 2010 14:30 2 Comments

THE MINISTRY of Defence today scrapped the closure of Arborfield Garrison and said training will stay at the base.

Training was due to be centralised in St Athan in South Wales as part of a multi-billion pound move, which would have seen the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) vacate the Arborfield base.

The Metrix Consortium was appointed as preferred bidder, but in a written ministerial statement to Parliament today, defence secretary Liam Fox said: "It is now clear that Metrix cannot deliver an affordable, commercially-robust proposal within the prescribed period and it has therefore been necessary to terminate the Defence Training Review procurement and Metrix's appointment as preferred bidder.

"Technical training, collocated on as few sites as possible, remains in our view the best solution for our Armed Forces. Equally, St Athan was previously chosen as the best location on which to collocate that training for good reasons, and we still hope to base our future defence training solution there.

"We will however now carry out some work before finalising the best way ahead; including to confirm both our training and estates requirement, and the best way to structure the solution that will meet them.

"To ensure momentum is not lost, work on the alternative options will begin as soon as possible and we hope to be able to announce our future plans in the spring."

The MoD said: "Training will continue to be delivered at current training locations as it would have done under the original PFI (Private Finance Initiative) proposal. These sites are: Arborfield, Blandford, Bordon, Cosford, Cranwell, Digby, Fareham (Collingwood), Gosport (Sultan) and St Athan."

The Garrison and surrounding land is earmarked in Wokingham Borough Council's core strategy as a strategic development location suitable for 3,500 homes.

Community group Arborfield Garrison Residents' Action Group has been fighting the plans where it involved development on green fields outside the base itself.

For reaction to the announcement, see Thursday's Reading Chronicle.

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This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 19 Oct 10

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

• 

  Badger
  Unregistered User
  Oct 19, 22:32
  Report comment

  It is a sorry state of affairs that this country now finds its self in, to save money the government is forced to change its mind and scrap the move of Aborfield to a new centre of excellence in Wales. This in the other hand is a plus for the local economy with all the families and single lads spending there money in the local area's.
  
  I hope that with the saving the government are making from this decision they are going to invest in the Garrison as i know from first hand experience that the quarter's need to be updated for the families, some on them still have the original double glazing they had installed when they were built. Also the single lads need money investing in there accommodation to either modernise there rooms or new accommodation blocks.
  
  I support help for hero's and other forces charities and with the help of the general public they have helped improve so many servicemen's lives, now maybe the government should step up to the mark and help as well.
  
  Recommend?   Yes 1     No 1

• 

  1234
  Unregistered User
  Oct 21, 08:53
  Report comment

  Please, please forget the term government. Governments do not have any money they spend the money we the people give them on our behalf.
  
  The money collected by the government must equal that spent by them.
  
  Thus if we the people of this country pay more taxes, in what ever form e.g National Insurance, the government can spnd more on other things.
  
  I say to you all. How good are you at blanceing your own expenditure agains income ?
  
  What deciscions do you make to cut out the things that you cannot afford.
  
  You must have chaged your mind about buying something that you can now not afford.
  
  So it is with the government. No different.
  
  There are always sacrifices to be made.
  
  Recommend?   Yes 0     No 2

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