Sir,
I refer to a letter written to you by Peter G. Davis (‘Can we afford to lose the bases’, March 11) saying it would be very wrong to force the UK into giving up the military bases on our much loved island. Having been on both sides of the fence, so to speak, I have seen the devastation to local communities by the closure of military bases, not to mention that the sites themselves become nothing more than a waste ground and no-go zones for decades.
One example of a foreign airbase closure was an American base in Oxfordshire called Upper Heyford. For years, there had been campaigns to close the base, though not by locals, but by people moving to the area from the large cities wanting to sample the village life, many themselves in some way had links to the base through employment, renting houses to service men, supplying farmed products, taxi and travel companies, post offices, in fact everything we all take for granted. First they complained about the noise, forgetting that the aircraft that at the time were based at Upper Heyford were quieter than those during WW2, and the American government compensated every householder with large grants for double glazing, then came the ‘frightening of animals’ and all kinds of silly excuses, all met with compensation claims which the American government paid.
There were also around 1,500 people employed from the local community (many people that complained also worked on the base).
Now the base is closed down and along with money offered by the American government, there have been many attempts to rejuvenate the base, most of which, even 11 years on, have proved unsuccessful, also many businesses in the local area have gone bust and once bustling village life has been reduced to a few pets roaming the streets and the elderly going to get their morning paper, if they still have a local shop.
There are similar stories to this that any ex-military personnel and people affected will tell you.
I am aware that most of the bases here are pretty much self-contained but locals still work there and locals supply the shops, cafés, restaurants etc, not forgetting the taxi and transportation services. There are also highly trained people married to service personnel employed in our hospitals, schools and other skilled professions; where would we be without them?
English people here who have chosen to settle in Cyprus after they had been stationed here in Cyprus also put so much back into the community, and they too would feel less obligated if the bases were to close and a few might even consider leaving.
Remember that the UK government are looking for excuses to streamline the military; let’s not give them that excuses.
Dave Roach, Paphos
