DEMAND FOR MoD TO PAY COSTS AFTER CONSULTATION CLIMB DOWN.

DEMAND FOR MoD TO PAY COSTS AFTER CONSULTATION CLIMB DOWN.

Demands for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to compensate Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) and HIE for costs incurred in the successful campaign to save 125 local defence range jobs in the Hebrides have been made by the areas local MP. Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil said the UK Government should pick up the £100k tab for the campaign after abandoning plans to downgrade operations on the Uists and Benbecula in the face of the community campaign. The SNP MP has written to the MoD seeking compensation for the community. Mr MacNeil said: “Our community fought a terrific campaign, and forced the UK Government to see sense and abandon their reckless redundancy plans for these bases.

“It was a great victory for the community, but after all the unnecessary stress of a consultation and climb-down the community has also been left paying for the privilege of keeping jobs that should never have been threatened in the first place.

“In these tough economic times £100,000 is no drop in the ocean, particularly for a small community like the Western Isles.

“Surely, after everything that they have put the community through over the past three months, the MoD should now do the decent thing and pick up the tab for the costs involved in reversing these half-baked downgrade plans.”