ROYAL NAVAL AIR ENGINEERING SCHOOL (Hansard, 12 February 1969)

§ THE EARL OF GLASGOW
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ LORD WINTERBOTTOM
My Lords, there would be no naval advantage in closing H.M.S. "Condor" at the present time. However, when fixed-wing operational flying comes to an end in the Fleet Air Arm in 1971–72 the work rate of the technical training schools at Arbroath and Lee-on-Solent will be reduced by some 50 per cent. and there would be considerable advantages, both financial and administrative, in combining these two schools. Should the Royal Naval Engineering School at H.M.S. "Condor" be transferred to Lee-on-Solent there would be financial savings of about £1.2 million a year.

§ THE EARL OF GLASGOW
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his reply. May I ask him this supplementary question? Have the Government considered the possibility of transferring some similar training establishment up to Arbroath from the Portsmouth area, with common administrative arrangements to save cost, so that the great link with this part of Scotland and the Royal Navy is not lost.

§ LORD WINTERBOTTOM
My Lords, a number of noble Lords on both sides of the House, and Her Majesty's Government, are concerned about the implications of closing H.M.S. "Condor". A well-established procedure exists in cases like this. An alternative use is first sought within the Ministry of Defence; then use by other Government Departments is canvassed, and finally the facility is offered to local authorities before a final decision is reached. All these procedures will be gone through if it is decided to close H.M.S. "Condor".

§ VISCOUNT MUIRSHIEL
My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether he can say what the saving would be if the work were concentrated in Condor "rather than at Lee-on-Solent? Further, may I ask whether, in considering the concentration of the school into one or other of these bases, full attention will be given to the value to the Service a location 418 such as "Condor" has, close to the town of Arbroath, a town of moderate size and great character, situated in superb country; a town which for many years has given the warmest of welcomes to successive generations of serving men and and which has taken immense trouble to help all the work of "Condor"? May I further ask whether those who are likely to be making this decision will remember, or have remembered, that not many years ago the Torpedo Experimental Establishment on the Clyde was also concentrated into the Portsmouth area? And is it really desirable in the interests of the Service that this kind of concentration should go on into an area which, quite unavoidably is becoming inbred?

§ LORD WINTERBOTTOM
My Lords, as the noble Viscount will be aware, the rotary-wing flying role of hhe Fleet Air Arm will be moving down almost totally to the West Country, and I think the noble Viscount will agree that it would be unwise to place a training station at one end of the country and a flying area at the other. This, in fact, would be bad logistics.

§ VISCOUNT MUIRSHIEL
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that torpedoes are still tested on Loch Long, whereas the whole engineering establishment connected with them has been transferred to the South of England?

§ LORD BLYTON
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that the Opposition are always clamouring about huge Government expenditure until it hits some of their pet schemes in this world of change in Scotland?