Leaked documents have indicated that the army's new divisional HQ at Edinburgh will need three "outposts" in northern England, including one in York.

The documents show that about 30 posts will apparently be needed at York, with others at Catterick and Preston, to run the army's large recruitment and military bases across the North of England.

Unions said today they believed that, had the new Northern Division been based in York, only one outpost would have been needed at Edinburgh.

Spokesman Alan England claimed that, with the HQ split between four locations, extra staff will be needed, costing the taxpayer in excess of £2 million per year.

This would be in addition to massive extra costs on matters such as travel, accommodation, and relocation, as well as the impact on the environment.

He said union representatives had costed the leaked information and it had confirmed their view that Ministers were being misled.

They now wanted a fundamental review not only of the decision to base the HQ in Edinburgh, but also of the way the Ministry of Defence dealt with such restructuring matters, and he called for a judicial review or examination by the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

Tories today stepped up their pressure on the Government over the controversial decision to opt for Edinburgh, following the leak of the document.

Shadow defence spokesman Robert Key said today it showed that not only was the MoD's decision fundamentally flawed, but that the Prime Minister had misled everybody.

But York MP Hugh Bayley said it was good news for York that some HQ posts would remain in the city, in addition to all the work that was being brought to Imphal through the re-location there of the Defence Vetting Agency.

An MoD spokesman was unable to comment on the leaked document early today.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.