WORK on turning the RAF base in Lyneham into a national military training hub is expected to start by 2014, as the Ministry of Defence continues to develop plans for the site.


Basic details of the plans for the site have already been announced by the MoD and in the latest update to the Royal Wootton Bassett and Cricklade Area Board, on Wednesday night, it was confirmed plans are due for a public consultation later this year ahead of a formal planning application in the spring.
 

Up to 25,000 students a year could be housed at the defence technical training centre, which would be fully established by 2020, with 1,950 students and staff there by 2015, rising to 4,300 when training is fully established.
 

Wiltshire Councillor Peter Doyle, chairman of the area board, reiterated the importance of a military presence on the site.
 

“We did not expect any major announcements at the meeting this week and we invited the MoD and Defence Infrastructure Organisation as partners to confirm what had already been announced,” he said.
 

“It was a process of establishing an ongoing and regular communication with them, which will be necessary in the coming months and years. They have been working very closely with Wiltshire Council planning officers.
 

“There has been a lot of hard work behind the scenes since the initial decision was made to move the Hercules out of Lyneham and I think it is fantastic news there will still be a military presence.
 

“The base is vital not just to Lyneham but to the local economy of north Wiltshire as a whole.”
 

The Defence Technical Training change programme team is already set up on the Lyneham site and are focusing on the requirements for the first part of the development.
 

“In September this work is expected to be of a sufficient maturity to allow detailed site investigations and design work to commence,” said the MoD.
 

“It is currently envisaged that construction, to accommodate the first tranche of DTT moves on to the site, will not commence before 2014.
 

“The first tranche will focus on provision for Electro-Mechanical and elements of Aeronautical Engineering, which are moving from the existing Bordon and Arborfield sites.”