Base row escalates
MSPs’diverging views
The future for Stirling’s sprawling Ministry of Defence site at Forthside prompted a row in the Scottish Parliament last week.
Members were discussing the MoD announcement in November last year that Meadowforth Barracks and nearby sites occupied by Joint Supply Chain Services and Defence Support Group would close by 2022 with the loss of 90 military posts and 150 civilian jobs.
Union Unite wants jobs at the DSG – who repair, overhaul and store military vehicles and weapons – to remain in Stirling rather than switching to Leuchars Barracks, as proposed by the MoD.
They have been backed by Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford.
However, in the debate at Holyrood on April 20, Green MSP Mark Ruskell, list member for Mid Scotland and Fife, said the site could help solve the area’s housing problems.
He told MSPs: “I believe the missing piece in that regeneration is the Meadowforth Barracks and the vehicle maintenance depot, which is a sprawling industrial site right in the heart of the city.
“It is a brownfield site that is in public ownership, next to rail and bus stations and is zoned for housing in the local development plan.
“In recent years, the Scottish Government has been pushing councils to find extra land for housing, and that has played into the hands of developers, who land bank premium green-belt land for executive housing that communities do not want and most families cannot afford.
“In Meadowforth, we have a site that ticks all the boxes, meeting much of the need for high-quality, high-density mixed affordable housing, right in the heart of the city.”
Mr Ruskell said he would not miss the other use of the Meadowforth site as an overnight lorry park for Trident nuclear warhead convoys.
He added: “A nuclear warhead convoy parked up behind a flimsy fence next to a multiplex cinema in a city centre is one of the most surreal sights in 21st century Scotland, and a disaster movie waiting to happen.”
Mr Crawford supported plans to transform Meadowforth barracks and Forthside into a site for housing, business space and technology centres, as outlined in the City Regional Deal blueprint.
He added, however,that given that the MOD’s plans for disposal will not be fully implemented until 2022, any city region deal will have to wait some time before the release from those sites of any potential economic benefit or housing site for Stirling.
“DSG activity does not take up that big a proportion of it,” said Mr Crawford.
“The footprint is more than adequate to allow the release of the benefits that are envisaged by the city region deal and still retain, in particular, the DSG and its fantastic skills.
“It is a mobile unit that can move to service units from wherever it is based, so it does not have to be in Leuchars to achieve that.
“Unlike others, I am not going to give up on trying to hold the DSG in Stirling city, because it is located in the right place and it brings amazing skills to our part of the world.”
Ad he added:”There is a huge connection in Stirling between the military and the city, and there will be a great sadness about the closures, which will bring to an end that long, historical direct connection.
“Such things matter.”