A LAST gasp effort aimed at getting defence chiefs to reconsider the shut-down of RAF Lyneham has failed.

Wiltshire MP James Gray called for the MoD to look again at the base closure plan, after problems emerged over housing for forces personnel.

According to defence blueprints, airforce staff from Lyneham should be rehoused when operations are moved from the base to RAF Brize Norton.

But the massive Private Finance Initiative housing development, at Carterton in Oxfordshire, has not yet been given the go-ahead.

And existing accommodation for Brize Norton has been condemned as "the worst in the RAF". But according to minister for defence Ivor Caplin: "The decision has been made and I am confident that we will get our housing stock up to the standard that we would all expect."