DTR funding tied to eco-town plans

story at http://www.defencemanagement.com/

DTR funding tied to eco-town plans
Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The government is in line to make hundreds of millions of pounds from the sale of excess MoD land as part of its eco-town plans despite the property market bottoming out it has been revealed.

The troubled Defence Training Review (DTR) is to be largely funded through the sale of excess MoD land as certain estates close down in order to move facilities to the new training site in St Athan, Wales. Recent news reports and revelations by armed forces minister Bob Ainsworth indicate that the sale of excess land will continue to be a key part of the funding strategy for the DTR.

Many of these soon to be vacant MoD estates will be part of the government’s plan for eco-towns. The Treasury stands to make at least £275m from the sales of 15 vacant land parcels, nearly half of which will come from the MoD. Some of these including a site at Borden are targeted for closure as part of the DTR.

Ainsworth told MPs that due to the property market crisis, valuation of the site at Borden was "prudent." While it is unclear how much the government and the Metrix consortium will make off the sale, other sites including the Royal Engineers depot at Long Marston have already been valued. Sources indicate that the Treasury could collect £84m from the sale of the depot by itself to eco-town developers.

Critics of the programme have argued that the DTR is being moved ahead despite widespread concerns over its viability and affordability in order to fund eco-towns and give profits to the Treasury and MoD.

Meanwhile the DTR programme, which is already £1bn over budget and has been forced to develop a new business plan, will not come under investigation from the National Audit Office or Comptroller, yet. Since the final financing agreement has not yet been formulated, the DTR has yet to enter the MoD accounts. Therefore the NAO cannot investigate the programme’s affordability and financing according to Ainsworth.

PFI dying

Ministers insist £12 billion defence training PFI not dead
Public Private Finance - London,UK
The cost of the Defence Training Review has risen from £11 billion to £12 billion, and the deal has been hit by rising construction inflation and problems ...

wishful thinking!

EDS one of the metrix consortium messes up big time AGAIN!!!

Our interview with MoD over EDS missing hard drive ComputerWeekly.com - UK A Ministry of Defence official says it is investigating with its contractor EDS whether a 1TB portable hard drive, which went missing from EDS's secure ...

Welsh Peace campaigners welcome St Athan Military Academy delay

Cynefin y Werin/ Common Ground
All Wales Network for Peace and Justice

press release 11th October 2008 from Jill Gough
press office: t: 0845 313 8 414 m: 07704 67 57 87

Welsh Campaigners Welcome St Athan Standstill
Those working to halt the building of the proposed
Military Academy at St Athan have welcomed this week's
announcement by defence minister Bob Ainsworth that the
decision whether or not to go ahead with the St Athan
Military 'Academy' will not be made until Spring 2009 
- and the contract not to be signed until 15 months
later (1).

While peace and justice campaigners remain resolute
in their campaign to stop the St Athan White Elephant
completely, they consider this hold-up to
be a partial victory in their campaign against
the militarisation of Wales
and the privatisation of the armed forces.


Campaigners against the academy are opposed to
the proposed furthering of the already
over-militarisation of Wales to create 'a place of excellence'
(sic) for new military techniques such as 'remote killing'
using satellite, computer spying and targeting of missiles
and unmanned military vehicle technology.

CND Cymru Chair Jill Evans has opposed the proposals for
St Athan since their inception. St Athan Academy represents
a publically funded privatisation of military training
which would be available to any regime or private company
with the ready cash to pay, and would lock Wales in to a
reliance on the manufacture and sale of armaments.


The St Athan military training proposal is also already
having a'militarising' effect on the curriculum of
educational institutions in South Wales and of the Open
University (2).

At a commemoration ceremony at Penyberth, Lleyn this
September, Dafydd Iwan said:"Wales is recognised for its
traditions of peace and reconciliation. I want
to see those traditions continue, and for us to become
a driving force for peace in the world, a task for which
we have the skills and the potential.

"Instead the British government would make us the centre
of training for war, putting that training in the hands
of multinational arms companies. Itis important that
the facts are revealed. "

"We are opposed to the privatisation of military training." (3) 
Visitors to the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff this summer
overwhelmingly expressed shame and disgust at the idea
of the military educational establishment which would be
the biggest PFI deal in Wales, do nothing to
address the causes of conflict in the world and promote
international economic bullying that does not serve the
poor and needy.

This week's news have caused speculation that by the
spring of 2009, the deepening financial crisis may have
made it even less likely that the St Athan Military Academy
project will actually go ahead.  Despite the credit
crunch, energy crisis and threat of global warming our
Government and its supporters continue to lack the long
term principles and vision necessary to
make the future safer for future generations.

Peace, justice and environmental campaigners are deeply
concerned that as sustainability is a core value for
government in Wales, then this aspiration has been
completely ignored in the rush to hand money over
to multinational arms dealers and their friends.
ENDS

1. Hansard:  House of Commons 9th October 2008 Column
453 Mr. Ainsworth:

"Hon. Members will be aware that progress on defence
training review package

1 has been more difficult and prolonged than expected.
However, I can report that considerable progress has
been made in driving down costs and towards
achieving an affordable, value-for-money package 1,
which is on track for an investment decision next spring,
with the contract signature to come
approximately 15 months later." 

2. "The development of the Defence Training Academy at St. Athan
would have implications for the Education service.  These
ranged from planning and providing school places to the
potential development of new curriculum
pathways for 14-19.  This would need to feature in the
work of the Committee for the foreseeable future."
Vale of Glamorgan Scrutiny Committee January 21
2008.

3. Jill Evans MEP and Dafydd Iwan joined Rev. Guto Prys ap
Gwynfor to light a flame of peace at Penyberth, near Pwllheli
in September this year. The event commemorated the fire lit
by Saunders Lewis, Rev. Lewis Valentine and DJ Davies to stop
the building of a bombing school there in 1936. The event
sent a clear message to the politicians in Cardiff Bay and
London of the need to oppose the proposed military academy
at St Athan.

http://www.cymdeithasycymod.org.uk/saintathan-saesneg.htm+penyberth+cymdeit

www.cymdeithasycymod.org.uk/saintathan-saesneg.htm+penyberth+cymdeithas

4.Cynefin y Werin (Common Ground) is an all Wales network of
organisations which promotes equality, peace, justice, human
rights and co-operation between nations, peoples and communities
on the basis of sustainable environmental, economic and
social development. See
http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk 

Groups active on this campaign include CND Cymru,
Cymdeithas y Cymod and the No2St Athan Military Academy
For interviews or more information contact:

Jill Gough National Secretary CND Cymru: 0845 313 8 414
(until 11am)  07704
675787 after 1pm e: heddwch@cndcymru.org

Dafydd Iwan : Saturday am 07984 202 922
Jill Evans MEP CND Cymru Chair: 01443 434 232 or 07803 902 401 

DTR Non announcement

DTR - Non Announcement

Published by Cheryl under Cosford, MoD

Yesterday the Shropshire Star had the following to say about the defence debate in the house of commons:

Thursday the 9th of October was another “non announcement” on the future of Package 1 DTR from the Minister for the Armed Forces Bob Ainsworth. Local MP’s Mark Pritchard both asked questions during the debate, an ad hoc version is below. Of interest was the fact that none of the Welsh MP’s made any comment.”PCS Branch Official H O’Harney at Cosford said “The news that further delays in the programme did not come as a shock to the staff at Cosford, they have been waiting for years to have clarification on their futures .The MoD seem hell bent on moving to Wales at all cost and the sooner the National Audit Office or Publics Account Committee review this programme the better since PCS are still skeptical that DTR is affordable. A £12 billion PFI carrying on in this current finacial crisis seems ridiculous given the risks and affordability issues. Our members at Cosford have made it clear that they have no intention to move Wales and the risk to the training of the Armed Forces is still real. It would appear that the MoD want to privatise at all cost despite the huge risks”

The response to a question, by the astute MP Mark Pritchard, Mr. Ainsworth: I am sure that the hon. Gentleman has a national interest too, but he has a particular interest in this matter and, obviously, he pursues it. I am not saying that the costs have not changed. I am saying that we still have an affordable package that is far cheaper than the alternatives, and that has been worked on over the summer. We will be able to go ahead with defence package 1 and get value for money out of those proposals…..

This is another first for the DTR programme in suggesting that the “fallback posistion” is more expensive than the proposed move to St Athan !! No wonder the Department needs to give Metrix another six months grace to rearrange costings to fit. It is also of note that in the preamble issued to staff that the MoD have stated that the sale of additional sites plays no part in enabling the move to ahead. Strangely in their own Risk Assessment which was featured in the Private Eye magazine, this was one the MoD’s identified risks. The fact that the DTR IPT can try to spin another 6 month delay is a positive message to all the staff is ludicrous !! PCS will continue to campaign against this looming financial disaster.