Military training fears as National Park public inquity reopens

16 March 1999

The Ministry of Defence is to call in environmental groups to Whitehall, as a Public Inquiry into military proposals for the Northumberland National Park reopens.

The Strategic Defence Review published last July said there would be 6,000 more troops based in the UK plus more heavy artillery weapons. It also highlighted new hardware - like the Apache attack helicopter - and new weapons.  This has led to the reopening of the Public Inquiry in Newcastle on Tuesday (March 23rd) and to the MoD consulting environmental groups to discuss its future plans on Monday (March 22nd).

The Secretary of State for the Environment, John Prescott, MP decided to reopen the Inquiry into the Northumberland plans mainly because of changes brought about by the Strategic Defence Review.

The Council for National Parks (CNP) is opposing the plans to train with the 45-tonne AS90 gun and the Multi-Launch Rocket System at the Otterburn Training Area in the beautiful and tranquil Northumberland National Park.

"At the 1997 Public Inquiry we called for an independent, strategic review of military training.  At the time the MoD had ignored environmental concerns in its planning and as a result came to the wrong decision: to train with heavy armoured vehicles in the Northumberland National Park", said Angus Lunn, CNP's Chairman. "Our concerns are that the Strategic Defence Review will now bring forward more heavy and long range weapons training and more noisy helicopter training - all of which have very damaging impacts on the countryside, including our beautiful and popular National Parks".

Now the MoD has invited environmental groups and those concerned with better access to the countryside to help "green" its performance.  It has asked for advice in carrying out a Strategic Environmental Appraisal of the Strategic Defence Review and is drawing up its first ever strategy for the whole of the rural military training estate - some 158,000 hectares (including major training areas in three National Parks).

"This is a very welcome step in the right direction.  It's just what the MoD should have done in formulating its AS90 and MLRS training proposals.  No decision on the Otterburn proposals should now be made until the new processes have run their course and information about all the new training requirements and their environmental impacts has been made available", said Angus Lunn.

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