Airbase becomes new home for Gurkhas

Jul 18 2007

A NEW army barracks in the Midlands is to be called Beacon Barracks, Ministers have announced.

The military base, formerly RAF Stafford, was saved from closure when it became home to about 700 service personnel, including 160 Gurkhas.

Speaking in the Commons, Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth said the base would be named after nearby Beaconside, which was part of a national national network of beacons used to warn against a possible invasion or threat in centuries gone past.

The future of the base had looked uncertain after the Ministry of Defence announced 450 uniformed personnel were to be relocated to RAF Wittering, in Cambridgeshire.

They then revealed that all the storage and distribution operations at Stafford would be moved to Leicestershire and Oxfordshire, threatening around 1,000 civilian jobs.

But following a long campaign involving residents, the local council and Stafford MP David Kidney (Lab), the Ministry of Defence announced a new use had been found for the base.

It has become the headquarters of 12 Signal Group and the home for a new 22nd signal regiment.