Catterick Garrison job cuts hope (From York Press)

Catterick Garrison job cuts hope

8:00am Thursday 19th January 2012 in News

A NORTH Yorkshire army base may escape the worst of thousands of military job cuts, according to a defence source.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed this week that 4,200 posts will be shed across the armed forces to help plug a £38 billion budget hole. About 400 Gurkha posts are also set to be controversially axed.

The full force of the cuts is thought unlikely to affect Catterick Garrison, where about 5,500 of the 9,500 service personnel stationed there are members of the 4th Mechanized Brigade, which may return to Afghanistan later this year.

“I think the chances of many redundancies at Catterick are pretty slim, given the fact the brigade based there is operational,” said the source.

It is also believed the Army Air Corps based at Dishforth will avoid the brunt of compulsory redundancies as it is also operational.

It is not known how many members of the 246 Gurkha Signal Regiment, based at York’s Imphal Barracks, may be affected.

York Central MP Hugh Bayley has tabled four Parliamentary questions to Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond and Chancellor George Osborne, due to be answered today, asking how many Army, Navy and RAF full-time personnel and reservists are currently based in North Yorkshire and York and how many are expected to survive the redundancy programme.