St Athan’s military history
With the news that over 300 jobs are to be cut at RAF St Athan, the stronghold at the Vale seems to be coming to extinction. But, the Goverment announced plans in 2005 to build a £16 billion pound military training academy to bring St Athan’s military prowess back to what it once was.
St Athan’s history as a military base stretches back to before the Second World War, with its maximum capacity reaching fourteen thousand at the height of World War Two.
But since the war, the number of people working at St Athan has been falling gradually.
A project which aimed to provide thousands of jobs at St Athan, project Red Dragon, initiated by the Defence Aviation Repair Agency, actually provided less than a hundred jobs because most of the work went elsewhere.
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So, when the MOD announced plans to build the Government’s largest Private Finance Initiative (PFI) at St Athan, in the form of a Military training academy, hope was restored with the promise of between 5,000-10,000 jobs.
But that was in 2005. Now three years later, a year behind the original building schedule and the MOD haven’t given the go-ahead.
What are the real job figures?
Commander Bailey is part of the Defence College Implementation Team at RAF St Athan. The team’s job is to lay the groundwork and help setup the relocation to the proposed new facility across the road (see google map above). He refused to speculate on whether or not he thought the facility would still be built, but he did give information on the jobs that would be available at the proposed academy:
However, this information is slightly confusing.
The only way new trainees could get work at St Athan is if the 3,500 trainee’s relocating refused to move, so they’d lose their jobs and new work would become available.
The 1,600 civilian training instructors Bailey talked about would be employed by the consortium building the facility, Metrix, so these wouldn’t guarantee jobs either.
However, there could be jobs in the 1,400 military posts, and there’d also be work, around 1,500 jobs, in the constructing the academy. When you break it down like this, the numbers originally quoted (between the 5,000-10,000 range) seem a little vague.
There’s been a lot of opposition to the proposed project from sites such as anti-metrix, STAG and no2academy, as well as many demonstrations:
Steven Thomas is the Director of the Welsh Centre of International Affairs, and has been opposing the project since day one for a number of reasons. He spoke about how the original job figures have been scaled down:
More pressure against the project
There’s been much talk about the facility at the Welsh Assembly also, with the overwhelming majority in favour of the base going ahead. One politician whose been voicing her concerns over the proposed facility is Jill Evans MEP from the Rhondda Valleys.
Mrs Evans expressed doubts regarding the job figures since they were originally quoted, and as a pacifist she’s against the project. Although Mrs Evans does recognise that jobs are needed in Wales; she doesn’t think the money should be spent on such a facility now:
So along with the actual job figures, we also don’t know if the proposed military training facility is even going ahead. At the moment, the MOD and the Vale of Glamorgan have agreed forward planning, but the MOD hasn’t confirmed whether or not they’re going to commit to the project.
Is it happening?
Although Steven Thomas is against the project, he was still confident that it would go ahead. He said: “I still think they (MOD) intend that it’ll go through. And differently from other people who’ve been against the project, I don’t think the economical impact of the past 24 months is enough to put them off it the project.”
But at the moment maybe we shouldn’t be dwelling on the actuall job figures – with the current economical climate, arn’t any jobs better than none?
Alan Davies is a retired army Major, and doesn’t see why a military training facility couldn’t be built so close to the capital. He’s far more positive on the economical impact that the work created at the proposed base would have on the Welsh economy, and he does see it happening in the future at St Athan:
So, even though there has been much protest agains the proposed academy, there is evidence to suggest jobs, however many will be created. And the surrounding area could benefit economically from such a large investment.
But at the moment, we haven’t heard any definite news on whether or not the base will go ahead, people for and against the base are split as to whether or not it’ll go through.
With the recession having already taken its toll on St Athan, next year could be a decisive one in its rich military history.
