§ 71. Mr. Bruce-Gardyneasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will set out in HANSARD the full details of his estimate of the savings in annual running costs of the Fleet Air Arm which would result from the transfer of H.M.S. "Daedalus" at Lee-on-Solent to Arbroath, and of H.M.S. "Condor" at Arbroath to Lee-on-Solent, respectively.
§ Dr. David OwenTechnical training for both fixed wing and rotary wing tasks is carried out at the Engineering School at Arbroath and the Electrical School at Lee-on-Solent. The latter station also contains the Flag Officer Naval Air Command's Headquarters and a number of miscellaneous units which could not be moved to Arbroath.
345WWhen fixed wing technical training ceases we have the choice of combining the reduced training task at Lee-on-Solent and closing Arbroath or combining the task at Arbroath and leaving the Flag Officer Naval Air Command's Headquarters and the miscellaneous units at Lee, i.e. keeping two stations running.
The present annual running costs involved are as follows:
£ million Arbroath (Engineering School) 1.2 Lee-on-Solent (Electrical School) 1.1 Lee-on-Solent (H.Q. and Misc. Units) 0.8 3.1 The cessation of the fixed wing training task will enable a total saving of £08 million a year to be made in running costs of the two schools.
The running cost of combining both stations' rotary wing tasks at Arbroath is estimated to be roughly that of Arbroath's present costs i.e. £1.2 million a year. To this must be added the cost of running the Flag Officer Naval Air Command's Headquarters and the miscellaneous units at Lee, which it is estimated will rise to £0.9 million a year to cover overheads and administration costs formerly shared with the school. The running cost of this two-station arrangement would thus be about £2.1 million a year and represents a total saving of about £1 million a year on present costs of which sum about £0. million a year is due to the cessation of the fixed wing task.
The running cost of combining both stations' rotary wing tasks at Lee-on-Solent plus the cost of the shared overheads and administration costs of the Headquarters and other units is estimated at £1.9 million a year—roughly the present cost of running Lee—realising a total saving of £1.2 million a year, of which again, £0.8 million a year is due to the ending of fixed wing training.
In addition to running costs involved, the two-station plan would entail an expenditure of about £1 million more on major works at Arbroath than the alternative of concentrating at Lee-on-Solent.