“Government ministers need to come clean and declare this project dead”

HOC 11 December 2008 : Parliamentary Debate
Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con): On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The defence training review is the largest private finance initiative in British history, worth £11 billion-indeed, the costs have increased in the last six months to £12 billion. I seek your advice, Mr. Deputy Speaker, because in today’s Financial Times it was announced that Land Securities Trillium, one of the major backers of the defence training review package, has pulled out of the project altogether. This has major implications for the future training of our armed forces not only in the short term, but in the medium to long term.
Is it not a disgrace that, yet again, the Government hav e chosen to leak this information to the Financial Times rather than bring it to the Floor of the House?

Mr. Deputy Speaker: I can only repeat that Mr. Speaker considers it extremely important that all important matters on which this House should have a view should be brought before the House, but I am sure the hon. Gentleman will find ways to pursue these matters himself, and the points he has made are on the record.

Shropshire Star Article
Great quote from Mark Pritchard MP
“Government ministers need to come clean and declare this project dead”

News reaches manchester too!  Eco home plan bust too!

Just 1700 homes for Deepcut site ?
Get Surrey - Manchester,England,UK
Deepcut was one of the casualties of the MoD’s Defence Training Review, which aims to
close and relocate several Armed Forces bases in the South East.
……Mark Pritchard has demanded a statement from the Ministry of Defence regarding the decision by Land Securities Trillium to withdraw from the Metrix consortium, the lead bidder for the Defence Training Review (DTR). A spokesman on behalf of Trillium stated that the company had invested a considerable amount of money on the project, but due to the significantly increased bid costs which were carried at risk by the bidders they would
now have to withdraw.

New Labour attack Jill Evans

A Welsh unknown New Labour European candidate has attacked Plaid MEP Jill Evans over her opposition to the proposed Defence Training Academy at St Athan.saying Welsh workers should be incensed by her continuing refusal to support these cleaning jobs especially at a time when the global economic crisis means people are facing redundancy.

These minimum wage jobs are vital to the economy of Wales. At a time of serious economic challenges caused by news deregualtion of the markets and the encouragement of unlimited greed ..Plaid is on the side of ordinary working people.

Miss Wagstaff noted

If I were an eager observer of Welsh politics and concerned Labour supporter who cared about my party, what sort of questions would I be asking at this time?

1. Did Labour receive any motion requests for the Llandudno conference in March that called for the Euro selection process to be halted because of concerns over a stitch-up?
2. Was an official European office used for canvassing by candidates, against strict ethics rules? i.e. if a member of her staff called constituency secretaries to check they'd received correspondence and then asked if they would consider supporting them in the selection process it would contravene rules and standards in the European Parliament and the Labour Party.
3. Why were calls for party hustings during the selection process repeatedly refused by Transport House?
4. Does Eluned have any ambitions of being an Assembly Member, now or in the future?