Rumours have long been circulated that Metrix’s plan for a privatised military training school at St Athan are in difficulty. Now Private Eye reports the following:
Documents from the Defence Training Review executive board show that:
* there are “major affordability issues” that will affect frontline services and that the “affordability gap” is so sensitive it couldn’t even be disclosed to the executive board!
* there are 15 significant risks from opting for the Metrix project in terms of standards and impact on frontline troops.
* 72% of trainers have said they won’t move to South Wales – so there will not be enough skilled personnel to actually do the work.
* there are inconsistencies in training standards between privatised training and in-house MOD training.
* there is a risk that the 2012 Olympics construction and other MOD projects will mean construction industry can’t cope and further delays are expected via the planning process and public inquiries.
* there is a risk that the project will not receive exemption from the accounting rules – the whole point of any PFI project!
* the consequence of this would be to make the project unaffordable and therefore prevent the project from progressing in its current form.
