The vacuum created by Ministry of Defence silence has been filled by rumour and a deep sense of foreboding.

EIGHT MONTHS ago the then Defence Secretary Liam Fox announced that the RAF would be leaving Leuchars in Fife and be replaced by thousands of soldiers returning from Germany.

Since then there has been no fresh information, no detail, no timescale. Even the rationale on which the decision was made now seems to be in doubt.

The vacuum created by Ministry of Defence silence has been filled by rumour and a deep sense of foreboding.

There is a strategic national security argument about whether or not the RAF should remain at Leuchars. There is also a powerful economic argument about the value of retaining a large military presence there. Whether that presence should be warplanes or boots on the ground is a matter of debate.

But there is a nightmare scenario— that the rafleaves Leuchars and the army does not come.

Today in an exclusive report a recently retired senior RAF source articulates that fear in chilling fashion. He says: “I think people should be worried. I think people should be very concerned that the possibility of an empty Leuchars military base with a rusting chain on the door is a real possibility.”

From the Nimrod programme to the new aircraft carriers the MOD has a long and inglorious track record of getting it wrong and there are legitimate grounds for questioning whether they have got the Leuchars decision right.

North East Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell notes that the current Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has been careful not to give any guarantee that army units will ever be stationed at Leuchars.

It is high time Mr Hammond spoke on the subject — either to give a guarantee that the plan for Leuchars is as announced, or that it has changed.

Continued silence is insulting and unacceptable.