21/05/2010

Ieuan Wyn Abuses his position


St Athan CPO Decision

When will the Inspectors report on the draft St Athan Compulsory Purchase Order be published and when will a final decision on the Compulsory Purchase order be made?

Bearing in mind that the whole St Athan project has been severely scaled down, which removes all logic for building a new college from scratch, evidence given to the public inquiry by MoD officials revealed the capacity of the proposed college to have been scaled back from 6,000 trainees to 2,700.

We were told on Monday 17 May that the Inspectors report had not gone to the Minister but on Thursday that it had indeed gone to the ‘Welsh ministers’ and ‘you will be provided with a copy as you requested, when the Welsh Ministers have considered the matter and reached their decision’ Who actually decides, Jane Davidson?

On Monday they told us that they didn’t know which minister to send it to! Are they are trying to cover themselves, as they can't decide on CPOs as necessary in the public interest if the DTC is not to proceed? Or has Persimmons been bought off, so avoiding a CPO decision?

It's unfair if the applicant Ieuan Wyn has seen the report - or participated in any decisions on when and whether to grant the CPOs. The applicant is abusing a privileged position!

Ieuan Wyn Jones Plaid Cymru (minister for the Economy and Transport) in a letter dated May 5 said  “under the Compulsory Purchase by Ministers (Inquiries Procedure) Rules 19994 (SI 1994 No 3264) an Inspectors report is normally published at the same time as the issue of a decision by Welsh Ministers on whether or not to make the order. The Inspectors Report on the draft Compulsory Purchase Order was received on March 26 and is currently under consideration. Although there is no specific time limit for such decisions to be made, we hope to publish a decision before the summer recess, once the Ministry of Defence has announced whether or not it is proceeding with the Defence Technical College investment at St Athan.  The decision and the Inspectors report will be published on our website at the appropriate time…

Is this in line with the rules? Rules that were drawn up by the Westminster Government 5 years before the establishment of the Assembly and some 10 years before the Freedom of Information Act. The public have the right to know. Shame on you Ieuan Wyn Jones! Keep Raytheon out of Wales! 


Notes
CPO - compulsory land purchase for access roads to a proposed tri-service college at St Athan.


Affordability
By the start of 2009, the project looked so unviable that Ministers had to quietly slip an “unnumbered  command paper” through the Commons providing Metrix with a £32 million risk guarantee to prevent the partnership going ‘belly up’. 
 Then Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP for the Wrekin, obtained an MOD memo which stated “Currently there is a £1.3 billion affordability issue in the programme”. The programme referred to is the Defence Training Review (DTR) programme, the official name for the contract Metrix is bidding for.
The leaked memo indicates that central to Metrix’s problems is the price of borrowing money. Supporters  of PPPs, which usually involve bank borrowing, frequently refer to such deals as ‘more efficient’ than schemes funded directly through tax revenue. But the memo states Metrix has a problem “borrowing money at a reasonable rate”. The Swiss UBS bank has  down-rated its investment advice on Metrix, suggesting its a very high risk venture.

and another thing the people of Wales are not aware that the noise levels will be unacceptable to local residents or  the track vehicles ...tanks and such. Or that MoD added to the planning permission for a golf course and a field exercise area!.....could go on forever!!

19/05/2010

Planning inspectorate uphold objections on St Athan

Goodbye St Athan & Metrix


Will college setback benefit Blandford camp?


Blandford Camp could benefit from a setback for a planned £12 billion defence training college in Wales.
The government’s planning inspectorate recently upheld objections over compulsory land purchase for access roads to a proposed tri-service academy at St Athan.
Now Max Wallis, who spoke at a public inquiry on behalf of Friends of the Earth, says Blandford’s training base could benefit from the inspectorate’s ruling.
“We found the whole St Athan project is severely scaled down, which removes all logic for building a new college from scratch,” said Mr Wallis.
He said evidence given to the public inquiry by MoD officials revealed the capacity of the proposed college to have been scaled back from 6,000 trainees to 2,700.
“The 4,000 units of accommodation and associated facilities at the Blandford base would be more than sufficient.
“Little new-build would be needed for service family accommodation, unlike the 473 units planned at St Athan at around £100 million from the MoD.
“If the tri-service training was sited at Blandford, the 200 administrative staff would not need to move to St Athan or be paid redundancy,” said Mr Wallis.
North Dorset MP Bob Walter, who has served as president of the inter-parliamentary European Security and Defence Assembly, said the St Athan project had cost the MoD about £500 million a year and could be shelved in the new government’s Strategic Defence Review.
“Blandford Camp is perfectly capable of continuing to provide first class training in information and communication systems, which is why the MoD committed £100 million of funds to it about 10 years ago,” said Mr Walter.
An MoD spokesperson said the department was awaiting the decision of the Welsh Assembly’s first minister.