Naval depot work sparks concerns

Lord Balfour questions profit and rates of pay

Questions were asked in the House of Lords about work being carried out by the Admiralty in Throsk.

Although the Observer of 100 years ago was vague about what was being constructed, we now know iy was the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Bandeath, which closed in 1978.

Speaking in Parliament 100 years ago this week, Lord Balfour of Burleigh quizzed ministers about the contract to build the depot.

He said those locally had little confidence in the contractor Sir John Jackson and was scathing about the profit he was likely to make on the contract.

He said men were travelling to the site by train, taking a roundabout route of 14 to 16 miles – and getting paid for it – when the route to the site across the ‘old Forth Bridge’ was only a mile and a half.

Lord Balfour also claimed men who had other jobs were being “tempted” to the site for a day’s work on Sunday.

“Twenty-four shilling for a single day’s work is an insidious form of bribery and shipbuilders and others in Alloa had suffered because men, exhausted by Sunday work, could not do their full-day’s work on Monday and the following days,” his lordship added.

Lord Balfour said the fiveyear contract was an “absolute mystery” to him. No big ship or destroyer could get near the place, he added, and roads were being driven through “some of the finest arable land”.

Replying on behalf of the Admiralty, the Earl of Lytton said the cost of the work was estimated at £350,000 – £19.2 million at today’s prices – and the contractor would get five per cent of the total cost.

The Earl said 10 per cent was the usual contractor’s profit and he insisted the work was of “first class urgency and importance”.

He promised to make inquiries about the time workers at the site were spending on travelling there.

The Earl of Lytton said the War Cabinet had banned Sunday working except in circumstances in which work had to be carried out without interruption .

In this case it had been allowed to enable the contractor to build a bridge over a stream and to bring material from Rosyth.

He said the Admiralty had nothing for which to apologise and “did not deserve the noble Lord’s censure”.

After construction, munitions were stored in 36 widely-separated warehouses.

When needed, the ordnance was loaded on to small ships for transhipment to naval vessels further down the river or at sea.

Having lain derelict for some years, the Ministry of Defence sold the former depot site to Central Regional Council in 1978. It was lightly refurbished in the early 1980s and became Bandeath Industrial Estate.