[BITList] BRIZE COCK - UP

[Michael Feltham]

From todays PRIVATE EYE

On 1 July the first of the RAF's entire fleet of Hercules transport aircraft began to arrive at Brize Norton, their new base now that RAF Lyneham has closed down.  The arrival of the aircraft went well ; the arrival of everybody else, including the ground crews who look after them, continues to prove disastrous.

The Ministry of Defence was supposed to have provided 800 new homes for RAF personnel in nearby Carterton ; but few have yet to appear because planning permission was only granted for their construction this week.  The RAF admits that the homes are unlikely to be finished before 2016.  As a result, 1 Air Mobility Wing, described as 'a key enabler for the 
JRRF (Joint Rapid Reaction Force)', will not be able to move itself to the new base until April 2012 at the earliest.  Unmarried personnel are being put into local hotels, B & B's and private rented accommodation until the MOD houses are ready.  The waiting list for married quarters is now 50 families long and rising.

Meanwhile the houses they used to live in 35 miles away at Lyneham are now empty, ready to be demolished when private developers buy the land on the cheap.

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I had the impression that the Govt. wanted to stop the dead servicemen being honoured at Wootton Bassett when the local population lined the main street.

Mike