By Julian Whittle

Last updated at 12:51, Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Defence Minister Philip Dunne will make an announcement this month on the future of Longtown’s closure-threatened munitions depot.

Defence minister Peter Luff

But the best campaigners can hope for is that he will provide a stay of execution to evaluate proposals to keep the site open.

Up to 300 jobs will be lost if he follows civil servants’ advice and approves closure.

A delegation of trades union and Cumbria County Council representatives met Mr Dunne in London yesterday.

Stewart Young, deputy leader of the council, said afterwards: “The unions put their case and put forward an alternative option to closure.

“He said he had to assimilate all the information he has had, including a lot of new information.

“He wants to decide by the end of October whether there is a prima facie case for doing work on alternative option.

“He listened to everything that was said and asked a lot of pertinent questions.

“But there is no doubt he is under pressure to deliver the savings the Government wants him to make.”

The meeting, scheduled for one hour, lasted for an hour and 25 minutes.

Neil Scott, section secretary for the union Prospect, believes the minister gave them a fair hearing.

He said: “We’ve given it our best shot.

“We pushed our case and we all had a chance to speak.

“We pointed out that civil servants do make mistakes, as the recent events surrounding the West Coast Mainline rail franchise have shown.”

The Ministry of Defence is proposing to shut DM Longtown in 2014, transferring its explosives-storage function to Kineton in Warwickshire. The unions argue it would be a strategic error to rely on one base and that the MoD has failed to factor in the transport costs of supplying firing ranges in the north of England from Kineton.

Mr Dunne’s predecessor, Peter Luff, visited DM Longtown in August and appeared receptive to the case for saving at least some jobs there.

Since Mr Dunne’s appointment in the September ministerial reshuffle, all three local MPs – Rory Stewart, John Stevenson and David Mundell – have been to see him to press the case for keeping it open.

First published at 12:29, Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk