25/09/2009

largest ever pfi approved

Don't forget the contract has not been signed yet!

From an article in the Times 'The contracts that are near to being signed include the Defence Training Review, a £12 billion PFI which all army training will be centralised at one base in Wales.The contract has been awarded to a consortium that includes QinetiQ, the defence research company, but the final sign-off keeps slipping amid rumours that the MoD is unhappy about the price.' Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners, a City brokerage firm, said: “There is not a single defence project that cannot be cancelled between now and the end of the defence review, so I can understand why the industry is pushing its case to get them signed as soon as possible.”

St Athan is also faced with green meadows being seized for a northern access road and housing (www.wix.com/stathan/stag), because brownfield land within the base is reserved for aerospace aspirations. And Welsh taxpayers are to pay the £20 million for unneeded roads, under WAG’s contract with Metrix for the Defence College. At least, there is to be an Inquiry into Compulsory Purchase Orders, where WAG’s steamroller can be challenged. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article6848237.ece

fROM THE TIMES

Defence companies push Government for contracts
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article6848237.ece
David Robertson
The defence industry is pushing the Government to sign equipment contracts worth up to £20 billion in the next few months, in an attempt to prevent the projects becoming a victim of cost-cutting next year.

Industry insiders have told The Times that intense lobbying pressure is being brought to bear on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in the hope of getting big deals signed quickly.

The companies are concerned that if equipment contracts are delayed, they will be caught up in potentially severe budget cuts after the election.

Even those projects that survive the cuts are likely to be swallowed up by the Strategic Defence Review, to which both Labour and the Conservatives are committed. This is likely to delay procurement by at least 18 months after the election.

RELATED LINKS
Will defence groups keep a united front?
BAE pays £346m to take over UK shipbuilding
Among the contracts that are nearing completion but could be under threat if delayed is the £5 billion Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to replace the country’s search-and-rescue helicopters. Two consortiums are bidding for the 30-year contract, with Lockheed Martin, BIH and VT Group offering a Eurocopter, while Thales UK, CHC and Royal Bank of Scotland are offering a Sikorsky.

“All companies try to get their projects through before a general election because of uncertainty about whether they will be backed by a new government,” a senior defence industry insider said. “This year it is even more critical. We all know there are big cuts coming and nobody wants a project they have spent years getting to the point of signing a contract cancelled at the last moment.”

There are at least eight large projects awaiting final clearance by the MoD, totalling nearly £20 billion in value. Defence analysts say it is highly unlikely that they will all be signed in the months before a May election.

The contracts that are near to being signed include the Defence Training Review, a £12 billion PFI which all army training will be centralised at one base in Wales.The contract has been awarded to a consortium that includes QinetiQ, the defence research company, but the final sign-off keeps slipping amid rumours that the MoD is unhappy about the price.

Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners, a City brokerage firm, said: “There is not a single defence project that cannot be cancelled between now and the end of the defence review, so I can understand why the industry is pushing its case to get them signed as soon as possible.”

Other projects include a £2.7 billion contract for A400M military transport aircraft, which is due to be signed at the end of
this year. The Conservatives have already questioned whether this could be cut, but Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, is understood to have backed the A400M deal as it will protect Airbus jobs in the UK. This is, therefore, considered one of the few projects that is safe.

The Royal Navy is hoping to buy refuelling ships in a £2.5 billion deal, but analysts have speculated that the MoD may try to save money by cancelling this project and leasing ships instead.

Another deal likely to be signed is the Future Rapid Effects System (FRES), an armoured vehicle for the Army. The original plan was to buy 3,000 vehicles costing £12 billion, but the MoD is now hoping to have signed a contract by February for 600 costing £2 billion. This may result in a decision to axe a pending £900 million contract to upgrade the Warrior armoured vehicle, which FRES will eventually replace.

A spokesman for the MoD said: “We engage regularly with the defence industry ... but our priorities are led by the current and future requirements of the Armed Forces. Our top priority remains Afghanistan.

“We continue to invest in defence equipment to meet the needs of current operations and to provide the capabilities needed for the future.”

BAE seals shipyard deal

• BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence company, took full control of what remains of Britain’s shipbuilding indu
stry yesterday with the acquisition of BVT.

VT Group, the former Vosper Thornycroft, sold its 45 per cent shareholding in BVT for £346 million, ending 150 years of shipbuilding heritage.

• BAE and VT merged their shipbuilding assets last year in a deal that created BVT. The partnership contains three shipyards: Scotstoun and Govan, on the Clyde in Glasgow, and Portsmouth.

• VT will inject £43 million into the business to reflect lower than expected revenue from an export order to Trinidad and Tobago. Negotiations over how much compensation VT should pay for the Trinidad contract held up the final sale for several months.

• VT will now concentrate on its growing support services business, which manages contracts in areas such as nuclear decommissioning, waste management and facilities management
Largest-ever PFI 'approved'
New Civil Engineer - London,England,UK
... Armed Forces in south Wales - known as the 'Defence Training Review' have been approved. The plans are to be funded under the largest-ever PFI deal. ...

St Athan Defence Technical College plan approved by councillors

WalesOnline - Peter Collins - ‎2 hours ago‎
THE £12bn project to build a Defence Technical College in South Wales was last night approved by planners. The scheme, which is the biggest single ...

Defence academy plan is approved

BBC News - ‎5 hours ago‎
Planning permission for a new defence training academy which will create thousands of jobs in the Vale of Glamorgan, has been granted. ...

Fears over future of Girlguiding in South Wales

WalesOnline - Peter Collins - ‎Sep 24, 2009‎
GIRL Guides groups across South Wales are facing closure because of a shortage of volunteer leaders, the organisation has warned. ...

St Athan project will put Wales on world map – where it belongs

WalesOnline - ‎Sep 23, 2009‎
TODAY, planning permission will be decided on the largest public sector project ever in Wales – the £13bn Defence Technical College (DTC) on the 1000-acre ...

Green light for £13bn military academy

Builder and Engineer - ‎2 hours ago‎
Plans to build a £13bn military academy in South Wales to train Armed Forces personnel have been given the go ahead. Construction work is due to begin at ...

Vale of Glamorgan councillors back plans for £13 billion military ...

24dash - ‎3 hours ago‎
Plans for a major military academy to train Armed Forces personnel were given the go-ahead. Building work is expected to start at the former air base in St

21/09/2009

Cable says scrap defence academy

Vince Cable MP
Vince Cable said the £13bn project was too costly

A pan-forces training academy which would create thousands of jobs in south Wales should be scrapped, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman has said.

Dr Vince Cable MP said the £13bn to set up the St Athan project was was too costly in the current economic climate.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced two years ago that it was to train servicemen and women at the academy.

The largest facility of its kind in the UK, it will give specialist technical training to the three armed services.

The Ministry of Defence has estimated the academy in the Vale of Glamorgan would create 2,500 jobs on site, with a further 750 to 1,500 additional jobs in the

wider economy and up to 1,500 jobs in the construction phase.

Dr Cable has today published an economic "recovery plan" which contains proposals for cutting government spending.

The Welsh Lib Dems say Mr Cable's comments were not party policy but indicated the levels of cuts needed in the current economic climate.

And a disclaimer on the Lib Dems website says: "Please note: this is not official Liberal Democrat policy and examples are illustrative and represent only a first, rough attempt."

A spokesman said that if the £13bn were not saved by scrapping the St Athan project it would have to be saved elsewhere, which would also have an impact on Wales.

'Jewel in the crown'

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain accused the Liberal Democrats of "competing with the Tories to make irresponsible cuts that will hurt the people of Wales".

"This is a jewel in the crown project," he said.

"It will make British forces the best trained in the world," Mr Hain added.

Responding, a Conservative spokesman said: "This project has always had cross-party

support and we will continue to maintain that the military should be properly trained."

Accusing Dr Cable of making a "reckless proposal", local Labour MP John Smith insisted

the scheme was "exactly the type of wise spending the British economy needs to

Help us come out stronger from the current economic storms".

Over the weekend, attempts by Plaid Cymru activists to commit the party to campaigning

against the academy's construction were defeated.

Plaid's leadership succeeded in watering down a motion on the issue

at the party's autumn conference in Llandudno that would have

committed Plaid to opposing the scheme.

An amendment passed instead said the party "recognises the opposition

within Plaid Cymru" to the project.

Scrap Defence Training College, says Lib Dem

WalesOnline - Tomos Livingstone - ‎Sep 15, 2009‎
THE planned £13bn Defence Training College in the Vale of Glamorgan
should be scrapped as part of a series of cuts in public spending,
the Liberal Democrats ...

Cable says scrap defence academy

Cable says scrap defence academy

BBC News - ‎Sep 15, 2009‎
A pan-forces training academy which would create thousands of jobs in south Wales should be scrapped, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman has said. ...

Cable says scrap defence academy

Vince Cable MP
Vince Cable said the £13bn project was too costly

A pan-forces training academy which would create thousands of jobs in south Wales should be scrapped, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman has said.

Dr Vince Cable MP said the £13bn to set up the St Athan project was was too costly in the current economic climate.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced two years ago that it was to train servicemen and women at the academy.

The largest facility of its kind in the UK, it will give specialist technical training to the three armed services.

The Ministry of Defence has estimated the academy in the Vale of Glamorgan would create 2,500 jobs on site, with a further 750 to 1,500 additional jobs in the wider economy and up to 1,500 jobs in the construction phase.

Dr Cable has today published an economic "recovery plan" which contains proposals for cutting government spending.

The Welsh Lib Dems say Mr Cable's comments were not party policy but indicated the levels of cuts needed in the current economic climate.

And a disclaimer on the Lib Dems website says: "Please note: this is not official Liberal Democrat policy and examples are illustrative and represent only a first, rough attempt."

A spokesman said that if the £13bn were not saved by scrapping the St Athan project it would have to be saved elsewhere, which would also have an impact on Wales.

'Jewel in the crown'

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain accused the Liberal Democrats of "competing with the Tories to make irresponsible cuts that will hurt the people of Wales".

"This is a jewel in the crown project," he said.

"It will make British forces the best trained in the world," Mr Hain added.

Responding, a Conservative spokesman said: "This project has always had cross-party support and we will continue to maintain that the military should be properly trained."

Accusing Dr Cable of making a "reckless proposal", local Labour MP John Smith insisted the scheme was "exactly the type of wise spending the British economy needs to help us come out stronger from the current economic storms".

Over the weekend, attempts by Plaid Cymru activists to commit the party to campaigning against the academy's construction were defeated.

Plaid's leadership succeeded in watering down a motion on the issue at the party's autumn conference in Llandudno that would have committed Plaid to opposing the scheme.

An amendment passed instead said the party "recognises the opposition within Plaid Cymru" to the project.

Scrap Defence Training College, says Lib Dem

WalesOnline - Tomos Livingstone - ‎Sep 15, 2009‎
THE planned £13bn Defence Training College in the Vale of Glamorgan should be scrapped as part of a series of cuts in public spending, the Liberal Democrats ...


15/09/2009

Vince Cable calls for Defence Training College at St Athan to be dropped!

at last - the voice of reason...perhaps the local lib dems will see sence at last!


Scrap Defence Training College, says Lib Dem

WalesOnline - Tomos Livingstone - ‎3 hours ago‎
Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable has identified the Training College, due to open in St Athan in 2014, as one project that should be dropped. ...

Scrap Defence Training College, says Lib Dem

Western Mail

Scrap Defence Training College, says Lib Dem


Sep 15 2009 By Tomos Livingstone

THE planned £13bn Defence Training College in the Vale of Glamorgan should be scrapped as part of a series of cuts in public spending, the Liberal Democrats said this morning.

With the Government’s budget deficit running at £175bn, all parties are considering ways of making savings, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown expected to concede the need for cuts for the first time in a speech to union leaders later.

Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable has identified the Training College, due to open in St Athan in 2014, as one project that should be dropped.

The scheme would privatise and centralise non-combat training for the armed services, and its backers say it will bring 5,000 jobs to the area.

It had previously been supported by Liberal Democrats in Cardiff Bay.

Mr Cable said: “The time for generalities is over.

“Instead, we need serious proposals for cutting public spending and tackling the UK's budget deficit.

“The priority is to move the economy out of recession but there is also a need to restore fiscal credibility and to allow Government to focus its resources where are they are most needed.

“We need to debate when, how and where the cuts will come. Un
doubtedly more are required to meet the exacting fiscal disciplines but asking the British public for their vote at the next election means being upfront from the outset about what Government should and should not be spending its money on.”

The party would also ditch a series of Government IT projects and save £2.4bn a year by freezing public sector pay.

A spokesman for the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: “There are going to have to be significant cuts beyond those which the Government have stepped forward and suggested. If we didn’t cut here, cuts would be needed somewhere else.”

Different schemes for armed forces training could be considered instead, the spokesman added.

11/09/2009

Welsh taxpayers £20m bill for unneeded roads for Metrix

WAGs Steamroller Aerospace Aspirations
Welsh taxpayers 20m bill for privatised military college!

The aerospace team in WAG have had to justify their aspirations for the Aerospace Park in the plans put to the Vale of Glamorgan Council for approval of the St Athan Defence College development. They call it a “draft comprehensive strategy” in the Design and Access statement dated May 2009.

As the recession has hit the aerospace industry, they hired a consultant (Mott MacDonald) for an updated assessment of its prospects. This shows claims to maintenance and refits for the RAF, which amount to no more than a wish-list. The consultant asserts the recession “should have only a short-term Impact”.

Yet the Prime Minister called it a "historic mistake to think we can now return to business as usual" (Gordon Brown, Interview with FT, 1 Sept.09).

Why does the aerospace team within WAG quote the industry consultant on their hopes for business-as-usual, rather than ask their own Minister, Iuean Wyn Jones, on this point?

The WDA, who dreamed up the aerospace ‘centre of excellence’ in 2001, were at least subject to business-viability checks within the Assembly. Now the quango is absorbed within WAG, there needs be no such internal check. When minority members of the Assembly Audit Committee proposed to scrutinise the aerospace plans, they were outvoted.

So St Athan is faced with green meadows being seized for a northern access road and housing (www.wix.com/stathan/stag), because brownfield land within the base is reserved for aerospace aspirations. And Welsh taxpayers are to pay the £20 million for unneeded roadsMetrix, , under WAG’s contract with Metrix
for the Defence College.

At least, there is to be an Inquiry into Compulsory Purchase Orders, where WAG’s steamroller can be challenged.

by Max Wallis

Andrew RT Davies said at the meeting that WAG is "contractually bound" to deliver for Metrix: # northern access road # Aberthaw Bends (Four Cross) improvement # Weycock Cross mega-junction

Why has there been no debte on this? - No questions asked!
The Northern Access Road which slices through a greenfield site from the Llantwit bypass to Picketston.

The Defence Training Academy which is not limited within the current base perimeter.

The Aerospace Business Park takes up valuable space on the base, which could be used to reduce land use outside the wire.

The engine testing facility which directs noise from its operations directly towards Boverton and Llantwit Major.

The firing range located 300m away from housing will result in excessive noise levels for Llanmaes, Picketston & Eglwys Brewis.

The Biomass Energy Centre which is 30m tall and will disperse exhaust fumes across much of the locality, depending upon wind direction.

The Service Family Accommodation will occupy greenfield sites.

The main access gate which is located 95m from housing and will bring significant traffic levels into Eglwys Brewis.

The construction period which is expected to last 5 years, use routes through St. Athan village & Eglwys Brewis and could go on until 2028.

10/09/2009

Objections to the Defence Technical College & Aerospace Business Park

Cynefin y Werin - St Athan Campaign Group

Objections to the Defence Technical College & Aerospace Business Park

Planning Applications nos. 2009/00500 and 00501/OUT

INTRODUCTION

Cynefin y Werin – the all-Wales network of organisations promoting international peace, social
justice, human rights and equality – considers that the placing of a ‘Defence Technical College’
(DTC) in Wales is a matter of interest and concern to all people in Wales. This is because it will
have far-reaching implications for the environment, economy, sustainability and security of the
nation, for our educational and cultural traditions, and more generally for the projection of a
distinctive ethos of Wales in the world.
A ‘St Athan Campaign Group’ has been established over the past 2 years within the network
(see: www.cynefinywerin.org.uk) to monitor developments there, and this submission
represents the views of our organisational members and those active in the Campaign Group.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
● The St Athan Development Brief of 2006 was based on overly-high figures for DTC personnel
and trainees (at least twice the current estimated numbers) so must now be considered out
of date. The northern access road – with a junction on the B4265, destructive of meadows,
causing flooding problems and approaching close to dwellings – can therefore no longer be
assumed to be justified. The case for £15 million or so of public spending on this, compared
with the alternative access at West Camp, needs full consideration.

● The DTC was initially promoted by the Welsh Development Agency (WDA), a quango, and
then decided upon at the Westminster parliament, without an opportunity for consideration
by the people of Wales or our elected representatives in the National Assembly for Wales.
We call for a Planning Inquiry, to ensure that a higher degree of democratic scrutiny of the
DTC can take place before any further action is taken.

● The Aerospace Business Park (ABP) is a speculative development, based on a draft ‘businessas-
usual’ strategy and dependent on improbable public funding approval by the Welsh
Assembly Government (WAG). Its northern access road is contrary to the Vale of
Glamorgan’s (VoG) development plan, both in itself and in facilitating green-field housing
for the DTC. We seek its call in for a Planning Inquiry too.

The economic recession has swept away any unproven prospects the ABP had in 2000. The
Welsh Assembly Government’s policy for a low-carbon economy, if applied consistently,
should end plans to expand the aerospace business, Moreover, the earlier “Red Dragon”
project can hardly be considered a valid forerunner for this new development:
a) as the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) workforce there will be disbanded within
months, and DARA’s super-hangar becomes unavailable;
b) in an era of contraction, or at best stagnation, of the aerospace industry;
c) in a post-recession economic situation that rules out planning on the basis of recent
trends.
● We propose that both a reduced size DTC and a realistic scale ABP could readily fit within
the present airfield site. ‘Green-field’ development, departing from the VoG Council’s

2
Unitary Development Plan (UDP) as in the Planning Brief, is not justifiable. We support
local opposition to building service families’ accommodation on the western side greenfields.
“Key worker housing” of 553 (483 new-build) units is much more than can be
justified, and more could be sited on surplus parts of the existing Ministry of Defence (MoD)
site. The western access road is an environmentally damaging relic of the original planned
peripheral road, and we support the local proposal for alternative access via an improved
junction and rail bridge at West Camp.

● WAG’s plans range beyond this application. Its 2008 Prospectus for St Athan now calls the
ABP an “Aerospace and Defence Park”, promising “maximum security… for any aerospace
and defence work”. It promotes St Athan as the centre of an aerospace industry hub, linking
BA at Cardiff Wales Airport and Pontyclun, GE at Nantgarw, and growing numbers of
businesses on-site, with “potential for further land development – 200 acres” and “planned
new hangars … up to [the size of] 767/A330 aircraft”. Public expenditure considerations are
lacking, and no business case has been developed.

● Details of the extra land (approx. 100 acres) and specific requirements for maximum security
work should surely have been included in the present application. We believe that their
exclusion is disingenuous, and that the VoG Council should challenge WAG over them.
Making a decision on the current applications when the applicants have publicly indicated
that they intend further developments to extend the site would be to allow incremental
development. Permitting such applications has in other cases been an issue for the
Ombudsman. The Vale of Glamorgan Council should oblige WAG to disclose its entire plan
for the ABP. Likewise, the Council should oblige the MoD to disclose plans for surplus land
within its West Camp site (which it had nominated for housing in the Local Development
Plan [LDP] process).

● The security implications for the development are of a national and international nature.
These stem from the concentration of defence training that is proposed, made all the more
acute by the fact that military personnel from overseas will be trained there. In our view, it
follows that the planning application entails national security, an issue in Planning Policy
Wales. The failure to cover the issue to enable full scrutiny for planning purposes needs to
be raised with WAG as an unacceptable omission.

SUMMARY CONCLUSION
We view these planning proposals as contrary to the interests of the people of the Vale of
Glamorgan and of Wales - as being environmentally and economically unsustainable; based
upon an unsound, speculative aerospace prospectus; socially undesirable for the locality and
community; presenting security risks to people locally and in Wales as a whole; and
contrary to the traditions of peace that have historically been so strong in Wales.
Privatisation of military training is part of a trend of privatising military services. This puts
on a commercial basis certain defence activities which are fundamentally a public service,
and which should be delivered by people imbued with an ethos of national interest. This
underlies a further fundamental objection the Campaign has to the Metrix project.
In view of the grave importance to all the people of Wales, as well as those in the Vale of
Glamorgan, of these proposals we ask for both Applications to be called in by the Welsh
Assembly Government for further examination and for Public Inquiry.
………………………………………………………….
3
DETAILED OBJECTIONS
1. We argue that the planning application by the Welsh Assembly Government’s Aerospace team:
a) promotes St Athan as a “Centre of Excellence for Aerospace and Defence”, yet has failed to address the
impact of the institution on the national security of Wales, on the achievement of ‘the Wales we want’, and on
our external international image;
b) has provided insufficient information on the full land-take envisaged, and on disclosing its plans for
“maximum security” military work and its land-use implications;
c) while discussing local security for the MoD site and the need to segregate civil from military maintenance,
fails to address any national security planning dimensions and the political implications for Wales of
association with military R&D, hardware and training of this type and scale.
We accept that the Vale of Glamorgan Council is not in a position to consider these national security issues.
Planning Policy Wales makes clear this is a Welsh Assembly Government responsibility. We ask VoG
Council Planning Authority to request that WAG call in the St Athan Defence Technical College planning
application for a Public Inquiry. The Council itself needs to press for full information on points a) to c)
above, in order to meet legislation on Environmental Impact Assessment.
2. We see that the plans and claims made in the publicity surrounding the Defence Technical College
development are at least in part based on exaggerated claims and speculation:
The scale of the DTC is still exaggerated: “The project involves developing a new military academy for
8,500 personnel” http://www.ibwales.com/business-sectors/aerospace-and-defence/news/stathan/
aerospace-business-park-update. The current numbers for personnel are in fact half that –
2,500 (maximum) trainees, 1,700 DTC and military staff, and 600 service staff (catering, cleaning,
maintenance and transport).

The actual training contract is uncertain:
● the huge cost has made it potentially “unaffordable”, even before the £30 billion deficit in MoD finances
which became clear in August 2009.
● the estimated benefits from selling vacated MoD sites for development are much reduced.
● the British Conservative Party has announced it will review all major defence commitments if it enters
government in 2010.

The St Athan focus has been scaled down, and this reduction may go further as:
● navy engineering training is to remain at Portsmouth, potentially until 2025 or later;
● there is reduced emphasis on centralised learning – nine satellite learning centres with Computer
Aided Learning are planned;
● a significant number of the experienced staff seem unwilling to move to St Athan;
● trainee contact hours have been reduced from the 1.5 million per year originally considered necessary
by the training staff.
Indeed, these and other changes mean that even the revised planning figures for staff and trainees that were
determined at the beginning of 2009 (approx. 4,200, set out above) are likely to be too high, and are out of
date.

3. Environmental Impacts are excessive and inadequately addressed
Flemingston firing range and Flemingston field training area
Cllr R Eustace of Flemingston Community Council has detailed impacts of noise from use of the firing range
(at times up to 11 pm), and ambush training with the firing of blanks and thunder flashes. Although acoustic
fencing and bunding will be installed, he reports “there will still be a medium to high magnitude effect on
neighbouring properties”. As the firing range is already in use, people know how disturbing the sudden
sounds are. Intensified use should not be allowed, but a new, better-soundproofed facility built, remote from
any dwellings and preferably within the camp.
Northern Access Road
This roadway is very intrusive in an open landscape, crossing a scenic valley stream on a bridge, and over
meadows on an embankment. This is a very noisy design – the traffic noise would spread readily to housing
at Millands Park and Eglwys Brewis Road. The plans to light it at night make for further intrusion, and
unneeded light pollution. The land on which the road would be built is productive farmland and sections
severed from it will be lost to housing and development of ‘possible sports facilities’ instead.
4
Flooding Problems Enhanced
Flooding is a problem at Boverton, recently tackled by flood bunds to retain water on the fields affected by
the road. The disruption of the new system and the additional run-off from the road and adjacent housing
could have effects that cannot be met at acceptable cost by the assumed underground holding tanks. A
fuller study of the issue is needed.
Aero-engine Test Facility
The noise from the present aero-testing facility is in practice highly disturbing. No argument is given for
allowing a new facility to be sited anywhere in the neighbourhood of housing, especially one closer to
Boverton where the engine testing is already found to be disturbing. As Batslays Farm is to be retained for
offices, siting the test facility adjacent to the farm buildings is unacceptable. Section 16.15 of the application
confirms that the significant detrimental noise levels from the engine running will affect properties to the
south of Boverton. Though the consultants propose mitigation via earth bunds (three sides only) they do not
give figures to show if this would be effective.
The MoD should be objecting about this aspect on behalf of present and future occupants of staff housing:
presumably their conflicting interest takes precedence. Once the VC-10 contract ends in 2014, there is no
justification in continuing aero-engine testing on a site that is even more sensitive than the present one.
Moreover, the MoD did nominate land on the south of West Camp for housing under the LDP; use for
housing and other purposes will be prejudiced by the proposed test facility.
Watchman Radar system
This system would have to be moved to St Athan (from Cosford), yet is not mentioned in the documents.
The high power system would affect residents much more strongly than the non-ionising radiation emitted by
mobile phone transmitters. There is also a possibility that Watchman will interfere with aircraft
communications at Cardiff Wales Airport: Speke airport, which is far further from Cosford, has encountered
such interference.
Concerns on these counts should have been covered in the Environmental Statement. Since no information
is given, Metrix should be required to guarantee that it will not seek to bring the Watchman system - or a
similar tower and transmitter system - to St Athan at some later date.

4. Implications for existing Development Plans
a. The VoG Council has said that this is the most significant planning development it has ever
considered; planners therefore should themselves be calling upon WAG to hold a Planning Inquiry.
This would match public expectation of independent and fair planning that the Town & Country
Planning Act 1990 (TCPA90) is supposed to ensure.
b. The VoG Council should resolve that the housing and road proposals “significantly prejudice” the
Unitary Development Plan by reason of scale, nature and location (Planning Policy Wales, PPW
4.12.2), when WAG has to consider a call in for a Public Inquiry. The Council should point out the
“wide effects” and “substantial controversy” beyond the immediate locality, as well as “issues of
national security” (PPW 4.12.1).
It is worth noting that WAG has just announced it is calling an inquiry over the Junction 33 / M4
Motorway development because “Ministers have concluded that the scale and location of the proposed
development and its overall impact on the environment raise the possibility of substantive conflict with
national policy on development in the open countryside...”. The ‘possibility of substantive conflict’
likewise clearly applies to these St Athan applications.
c. Alternatively the VoG Council could trigger an appeal (PPW 4.11) by either not determining the
applications or rejecting them as premature until the new development plan (LDP) passes through its
consultation and inquiry processes (or pending a Conservative government review of MoD contracts,
several months post-election).
Should Metrix insist on an earlier decision and appeal, there should result a Public Inquiry under the
Planning Inspectorate (PPW s. 4.12.1), unless WAG recovers the appeals for their own determination
because of “novel planning issues”.

5
5. Unrealistic and speculative Aerospace development
The Aerospace Business Park started as a means of replacing jobs servicing the RAF base, and to make
use of the St Athan airfield’s assets. When the Red Dragon Project was conceived to take over from the
Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA), it was said that the £77m high-tech aircraft repair and
maintenance centre would be the basis for a world-class aviation centre with 2,000 jobs. This never
happened.
a. We are concerned that there has been no sober risk and business assessment for the current
proposal. The consultants Mott MacDonald were appointed in December 2008 by WAG to update
demand studies. They claim as a key finding: “The current economic downturn, although severe,
should have only a short term impact on the aerospace industry.” That statement is based on a world
view inconsistent with the WAG policy of changing Wales to a low carbon, sustainable economy. The
Prime Minister calls it a "historic mistake to think we can now return to business as usual" (Gordon
Brown, Interview with FT, 1 Sept.09).
b. Even in 2007, the UK Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) market was decreasing, and the
further decreases in the recession are surely stronger than the 0.9-1.8% guessed at in the Planning
Statement (s.218).
c. The prognosis for MoD work did not take into account the expected shortfall in MoD funds, which is
due to worsen in public expenditure cuts. The expectation of ‘business as usual’ from 2010 ignores
the government’s own expectations of public expenditure cuts for a decade or so, and was slated by
the Prime Minister himself in the interview cited above. It was also in ignorance of the huge overrun in
MoD project expenditure, set recently at over £30 billion, and new concerns about military equipment
requirements, especially in Afghanistan.
d. The original aim for the development at St Athan – regeneration, and continuing employment for
DARA’s engineering workers – has failed and much of the workforce has disappeared (to other sites or
jobs, or retired). While the publicity claims a “large, local skilled and flexible workforce”
(www.ibwales.com/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.5069), jobs for the remaining 400 people based
there will end within months and this new development of hangars and other buildings to handle large
aircraft will not produce any for approx. 5 years.
e. A poor record in attracting companies: the 2008 brochure has added “highly competitive rents”,
because of the dearth of companies seeking the empty sites/buildings at St Athan. Firms on site are
dwindling (down to three) and there is little prospect of any newcomers in the short-term with the
current recession in aerospace in the UK.
f. Little evidence of other skills: the Welsh Aerospace skills brochure lists 49 Welsh skill centres but cites
only MPI Aviation at MoD St Athan, which it describes as a ‘Project Support Specialist’ with an office in
Telford. It undertakes cargo conversions, repair schemes, maintenance and structural modifications,
as well as interior refurbishment and re-configurations (www.mpi.ltd.uk/aviation.asp).
g. Since Wales has other sites for civil aviation work, already with MRO workforces and facilities, what
justifies investing at St Athan in competition with them? The 2,500 jobs that “could be created” are not
particularly needed more in the Vale of Glamorgan than elsewhere, but would put unwanted pressures
on services and housing.
h. Mott MacDonald’s projections envisage winning work on a speculative basis:
● huge new hangars to allow MRO work on large military transport aircraft (Globemaster III and
FSTA). Yet the fleet of FSTAs (a modified Airbus) will be based at Brize Norton in Gloucestershire; the
RAF’s future A400M and Globemaster Transporter will only be open for MRO bids after the DARA
skills/workforce has been disbanded.
● retrofits of communications, navigation and surveillance systems to civil and military aircraft; no
reason is given why retrofits could be better done at St Athan than elsewhere, not even “some of this
work”.
● maintenance and storage of unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs). No reason is given for
maintenance and storage of UCAVs, compared with Aberporth in Ceredigion or elsewhere.
i. While we are told that “strict segregation” of maintenance of military and civil aircraft will be necessary,
the proposals do not explain how this would be feasible, including segregation for runway purposes.
6
j. The strategy drawn up by the ‘dedicated aerospace team’ is a “draft” only that has not passed
Treasury-standard assessment, nor gone to public consultation, nor gained WAG approval. The
realistic expectations for aerospace jobs would be fewer than the 2,000 originally given, and well below
the 2,500 of Mott MacDonald. We believe that the VoG Council must therefore treat it as unfounded,
speculative development and apply strict planning rules.
Hence, the plans as submitted, and promotional publicity for the Aerospace Business Park development, are
based on speculative claims. On the evidence supplied the ABP lacks a sound business case, and is likely
to be abandoned if subject to Westminster government Treasury criteria. The case in the Planning
Statement (s.231-236) is reminiscent of the Cardiff Wales Airport expansion that the WDA supported in
1999-2000 but which never came to pass.
6. Lack of Openness on Area for ABP development
The 166 hectare area given in the Planning Statement includes the runway and wide exclusion areas
either side – the real area available is about 250 acres, as given in publicity material. However:
● the 2007 promotional pamphlet ‘Come fly with us’ of Aerospace Wales (and International Business
Wales) says at least 346 acres is “available for bespoke development”;
● the Aerospace Wales 2008 St Athan promotional brochure refers to a “secure 250 acres” and a
further 200 acres “potential for further land development” (as also does
http://www.ibwales.com/business-sectors/aerospace-and-defence/news/st-athan/aerospace-businesspark-
update);
● ABP South comprises an area of 117 acres (46.84 hectares) south of the runway at
Batslays, West Orchard and Beggars Pound.
Part of ABP South is for the access road, while Batslays Farm development depends on compulsory
purchase. This potential for development is thus under 120 acres. We infer that WAG is envisaging
at least a further, as yet unspecified, 80 acres as “potential for further land development”.
Omitting to describe its full ambitions – presumably for land closer to St Athan housing – is wrong on
the Welsh Assembly Government’s part. The Council Planners should oblige WAG to disclose all of
the areas of land it envisages developing in its promotional literature.
7. Security Risks of the DTC and Aerospace and Defence Park
a) The DTC would be a prime target for ‘terrorist’ attack for at least two reasons:
● Metrix (as does Raytheon already) will boast of it as a flagship training centre, making it a high profile
target.
● trainees will be on site from military forces of countries like Saudi Arabia and Malaysia (associated with the
weapons systems sold to them by British companies) and potentially from other regimes or even private
forces to which Metrix may sell its training packages.
While the recipients of Metrix training would be subject to MoD policy, government policies can change and
the planning authority has to anticipate the worst case. Even present practice in training non-UK forces
would make St Athan/Wales a target and so raise “issues of national security” in the words of Planning
Policy Wales (4.12.1). Potential conflict with the National Assembly for Wales’s commitment to human
rights also needs to be considered.
b) The 2008 St Athan promotional brochure calls the ABP an “Aerospace and Defence Park”, and includes in
the ‘St Athan – a centre of excellence’ section “maximum security – suitable for any aerospace and
defence work” (also at www.ibwales.com/aerospace). This proposal was not in the 2007 Aerospace
Wales pamphlet and is not admitted in the planning application 2009/00501, but is in the St Athan
Aerospace and Defence Park brochure.
The ABP planning application is inadequate in omitting the land use implications of this ‘maximum security’
area. More importantly, it omits the implications for the ‘national security’ of Wales, noted as meriting
special planning consideration (PPW 4.12.1).
Thus both developments would identify St Athan and Wales with work on military systems up to the most
sensitive level. Plans have to be made to cover St Athan and the surrounding area becoming a prime
target for ‘terrorist’ attack.
Cynefin y Werin : St Athan Campaign Group 8 September 2009
Temple of Peace, Cathays Park Cardiff CF10 3AP