Northumberland National Park military proposals open the floodgates

16 March 1999

Plans for a major military development in the Northumberland National Park would lead to far more military training there in the future, according to the Council for National Parks.

CNP is objecting to the plans and will submit further evidence at a public inquiry into them, which is to reopen at Newcastle Airport on Tuesday, March 23rd.  The inquiry is into Ministry of Defence plans to train with the 45-tonne AS90 gun and the Multi-Launch Rocket System, which means an extensive road building project, the loss of 25 hectares of wildlife habitat and damage to a beautiful landscape, noisy firing and disruptive convoys on public roads.

The Secretary of State for the Environment, the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott MP, has reopened the inquiry because of the changes brought about by the Strategic Defence Review and new information about the M28 rocket (fired by the Multi-Launch Rocket System), which the Army wants to fire in the National Park.

"The Strategic Defence Review published last July said there would be 6,000 more troops based in the UK plus more heavy, tracked weapons.  It also highlighted new hardware - like the Apache attack helicopter - and new weapons", said Angus Lunn, Chairman of the Council for National Parks.

"These current proposals would introduce new types of training which are totally unsuitable in this beautiful area of moorland and incompatible with its status as a National Park.  The floodgates would then open for more heavy guns, longer range rockets and noisy helicopters.  The environmental impacts of all that future training must be assessed now."

Since the six-month inquiry ended in October 1997 CNP has also discovered that the Army is running out of M28 rockets, which it said made the development in the National Park essential.  The M28 has a long range and is particularly polluting when fired.

CNP has found that:

 At the current rate of use no M28s would be left by the time the proposed development was built
 There is no Government money allocated to replace it.

"At the original Public Inquiry the MoD covered up the environmental impacts of this rocket. Now we've found out the Army will never fire the M28 at Otterburn anyway.  This took up a considerable amount of time at the original Public Inquiry and the MoD must now come clean about its real intentions", said Angus Lunn.

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