Yesterday we exposed the disturbing manoeuvres in the Ministry of Defence proposal to grant a new and much more advantageous lease – in advance of sale – to Highland and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL), operating Campbeltown Civil Airport within the territory of the site to be sold.
At the foot of yesterday’s episode, we have posted some key responses received from some of those whom we emailed yesterday. We had asked them to contact the Ministry of Defence immediately (today is the deadline for the issue of the proposed new lease to HIAL) asking for any new lease to be set aside in favour of a simple one-year extension of the current HIAL lease.
This would ensure continuity of service and enable the new owner to negotiate their own circumstances as they should be entitled to do.
It would also – as it must – leave the site in the state in which it is currently advertised for sale, without the significant modifications that would result from the proposed new lease for HIAL – as we described in Part 1 yesterday.
Here is the next most urgent aspect of our investigations into the morass of looters, incompetents and those economical with the truth that the disposal of the former Ministry of Defence airbase at Machrihanish on Argyll’s Mull of Kintyre has brought to the surface. This situation disgraces and destroys trust in public sector operations at all levels.
Valuation of the site
This issue is critical because the Ministry of Defence has set what it insists is an immovable date for the disposal of the site – 11th August 2010.
As we have reported, a valuer has been appointed, has been at the site and has been given an extension to the time within which a valuation is to be produced.
Any issues – and we identify some centrally important ones below – left unclear, disguised or contested in the valuation which is under way, will need to be resolved to general satisfaction before any sale can be completed.
In our view – and on the evidence we present – the time-compression offered by the current sale date is unrealistic and discriminatory
The Machrihanish Airbase Community Company will, by law (under the Land Reform Act Scotland), have a scant four weeks from the valuation date to conduct a ballot of a widely dispersed Kintyre community on its intention to buy the site for that community.
This extension of the valuation date can only act to the disadvantage of this community company, caught between the rock of the Land Reform Act and the hard place of the MoD’s sale date.
Additionally, where, post-valuation, there are serious unresolved issues concerning the site – as there will be – it is unlikely that the community will feel able to vote on the MACC proposal within the timescale available. This is de facto a discriminatory shackling of one potential buyer, while leaving others free to move at will.
The situation
The European Environmental Liability Directive, now in force, removes any retrospective liability, post-sale, from the vendor
The MoD is in some haste to dispose of the site at Machrihanish because the liabilities attached to it are considerable. Its anxiety for a quick sale is evident:
- in the offer we disclose below that it made – for which there is documentary evidence – to transfer the site to the ownership of the Scottish Government
- in the refusal to move from the date of 11th August 2010 that it has set for the sale of the property.
In terms of liabilities attaching to the site, there are two central issues here, both detailed below:
- the MoD may not yet actually be legally free to offer all or parts of the site for sale on the open market
- the site may have radioactive contamination, most probably in the area of Site 1
The MoD’s own valuation of the site: £1
The Ministry of Defence itself has already put a value on the site – by offering it to the Scottish Government for £1, provided that the Government accepted the liabilities which come with the site.
The Government, Argyll and Bute Council and Highland and Islands Enterprise had discussions with the MoD on this offer but found no alternative to turning it down.
The liabilities attaching to the site are very significant, as we will detail today and tomorrow – in cost terms and probably in environmental terms.
A notional figure of at least £20 million has been attached to these liabilities.
When we enquired directly on the matter of the £1 offer, the MoD flatly lied, saying emphatically that it was not the case. When we told them that there was documentary evidence to the contrary - received under Freedom of Information, they did not return to that particular field.
They also, having offered to send a short statement on ‘what the MoD can say’ – which we accepted, sent nothing.
The following statements are from the Scottish Government and Argyll and Bute Council on their involvement in discussions with the MoD on the offer to transfer ownership of the site for £1 (which neither admitted was the case, although, unlike the Mod, they did not lie about it).
The Scottish Government issued two statements in response to questions from us.
- The first was: ‘The Scottish Government/HIE and Argyll and Bute Council were interested in securing the site’s development potential, including the area of the base earmarked for the Welcon development, and also to secure the base for the civil aviation operation. The Scottish Government had no interest in acquiring the whole site, which would have needed substantial investment to make it suitable for developmental use. Defence Estates, who own the site, held meetings with the community where they set out their disposal strategy and, in addition, a representative of the community attended a Steering Group meeting where there was an opportunity to ask questions on all aspects of the disposal and SG and HIE interests. A community group has now lodged an application under Community right to buy legislation’.
- The second statement was issued in response to our inquiry as to which Scottish Government departments and Ministers had been involved: ‘Discussions involved the MOD (Defence Estates) and education and economy departments, in addition to Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Argyll and Bute Council. The Ministers for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism and also Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change were kept informed’.
Argyll and Bute Council said:
- ‘HIE, the Scottish Government and Argyll and Bute Council have had various discussions with Defence Estates regarding the future use of the Machrihanish site in terms of economic development. The site was put on the market last year in the hope of attracting a private sector bidder. During this period, links with community representatives were maintained and there was community input to a steering group meeting to explore various options. We are not aware of any formal proposal having been made regarding a nominal £1′.
The critical point in this matter is that the MoD’s offer of the site for £1 to the Scottish Government is, in effect a valuation.
How can any subsequent valuer set aside the fact that the owner of the site had offered it at that price and under those conditions and was prepared to accept it?
The legality of sale: the Crichel Down judgment
The issue of the Crichel Down judgment, protecting the interests of former owners of a Government site, could affect the sale of the Machrihanish site.
This remains an ambiguous situation, even in the Defence Estates own words, quoted below.
The Crichel Down judgment requires the MoD to offer any appropriate Defence Estate disposal site first to the original owners or their heirs.
In relation to the Machrihanish site, Defence Estates is ambiguous on the matter, meaning that it cannot close down the possibility that all or parts of the Machrihanish site might come under Crichel Down rules.
The MoD’s wording on the status of the Machrihanish airbase site on the Defence Estates disposal list is: ‘Former Owner applicable? Crichel Down applicable but exemption from former owner obligation considered to apply (emphasis For Argyll’s) on grounds of material change and fragmentation’.
We understand that some additional land was bought from farmers in the 1950s, some of which will be the land included in HIAL’s proposed new lease.
The situation with the possible rights of former owners certainly does not seem to us to be sufficiently unambiguous for any potential buyer to be assured that they might not face involvement in litigation from former owners, or their heirs,at some point in the future.
The MoD’s Crichel Down Rules state: ‘It should be noted that Defence Estates is obliged to consider the potential application of the Crichel Down Rules to all of its surplus sites.
‘If the rules apply and no exceptions from the rules are applicable to a site then Defence Estates will offer that site or the relevant parts of it back to former owners, or their successors, ahead of any offer to the open market, in accordance with the rules.
‘Defence Estates is currently in the process of reviewing the application of the rules to some of these sites and will be obliged to complete that process in full for that site before any offers from the open market can be considered. (For Argyll’s emphasis.)
As things stand, freedom from the authority of the Crichel Down judgment is no more than, in the Defence Estates’ own words, ‘considered to apply’.
Site contamination
As we have reported before, we know that nuclear depth charges were held on the Machrihanish site when it was operational. These were most probably located in the underground armaments silos in the area of the site known as ‘Site 1′.
Given the period at which this was the case, the state of technology at the time and the safety standards obtaining, it is unimaginable that, before being offered for sale, the site should not have required screening for radioactive contamination; and should have had any necessary decontaminations procedures carried out.
The MoD talks only of ‘ground assessments’ carried out, will not say what techniques were used, has no idea of the date of such ‘assessments’ and, when pushed, says that ‘of course’ this would have included screening for radioactivity.
Given that the MoD has already, to our full knowledge, lied without equivocation on offering the site for £1 to the Scottish Government (when they were unaware we knew of the existence of documentary evidence to the contrary), their word is simply not to be believed in anything. To the best of our knowledge, such screening has not, in fact taken place.
This means that there is an issue as to whether or not the site can, on appropriate evidence, be guaranteed to be free of radioactive contamination.
All the MoD will say is that site cleaning will be required by the buyer, to deal with the earlier presence of ‘aircraft fuel and armaments’.
This cost of such cleaning – calculated only on the ‘ground assessments’ said to have been carried out and not allowing for the radioactive contamination that logic suggests may well be the case, is factored in to the nominal £20 million figure for site liabilities.
It also says that information from ‘ground assessments’ will be made available only to prospective buyers, although the matter is certainly of public interest - and commercial interest, with the significant investment in the contiguous Machrihanish Dunes Golf Course.
Whatever the ‘ground assessments’ were, they were carried out or commissioned by the MoD without awareness of involvement of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, which has assured us that is has no knowledge of such activity.
The MoD cannot reliably assure anyone, without the production of documentary evidence, that the site has been screened for radioactive contamination and that any decontamination measures which may have been required were carried out and were successful.
The following statement indicates that Argyll and Bute Council is under the impression that the selling agent, Drivers Jonas, was responsible for site checks: ‘Defence Estates commissioned Drivers Jonas to review the site, both in terms of its potential and any related issues. It is our understanding that no significant contamination issues were identified on the site. However, if you are looking for more detail on that, I suggest you contact Defence Estates which commissioned the study’.
We had already done so, with the results detailed above.
Both Argyll and Bute Council and the Scottish Government are clear that responsibility for the site being clean rests exclusively with the MoD.
Conclusions
This part of our investigations reveals a core situation where:
- there is already an authoritative valuation for the site, rendering little other than a waste of time the ‘valuation’ currently ongoing. The only outcome capable of unseating the MoD’s own valuation is a negative valuation – which is well within the bounds of possibility. No other valuation can now have any validity.
- the legal basis of the Defence Estates’ offer of the site for sale on the open market is far from unambiguous.
- the safety state of the site in terms of radioactive contamination is unclear to say the least
- the MoD is anxious for a quick sale to remove itself from liabilities attaching to the site which, should any of the legitimate concerns we describe above be substantiated, would act to the profound detriment of the end buyer, of the local community and of the environment in which significant investments – like Machrihanish Dunes Golf Course – already sit.
It is our contention that individually and certainly together, these factors demand the removal of any set date for the final disposal of the site until they have been resolved to public satisfaction.
Tomorrow’s installment will cover other site liabilities and site assets.
Here are links to other parts of this investigative series:
- Machrihanish airbase – minefield of nightmares: Part 1
- Machrihanish airbase – minefield of nightmares: Part 3
- Machrihanish airbase – minefield of nightmares: Part 4
This is a very sorry tale – the community are going to be done down in every respect!
Quoting from this excellent article “This is de facto a discriminatory shackling of one potential buyer, while leaving others free to move at will.” This is absolutely right and it is a disgrace – all the authorities involved must have reason to be thoroughly ashamed. The authorities’ treatment of this community flies in the face of all the Scottish Government’s fine words about community involvement, community consultation and the erstwhile much flaunted right to buy legislation.
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We have received a copy of a letter written today by Jim Mather, Argyll’s MSP to his colleague, Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson and have established that we may publish it:
‘Dear Stewart,
‘Re: Campbeltown Airport
‘As the Government is already aware, the local community in Kintyre are interested in the acquisition of the former airbase from the MoD.
‘For my part, I understand and welcome the efforts being made to ensure that the civil air operations continue at Machrihanish and your assurance that the Government will engage with the community about the future ownership of the airfield.
‘In any event, I also understand and believe that Part 3 of the Land Reform Act would enable community purchase regardless of contractual relationships between HIAL and the MoD and I also am aware that HIAL have no interest in the airfield beyond that part required for our airport.
‘In the meantime, I remain grateful for you making me aware of the issue of site contamination and the lack of detail forthcoming from the MoD about the prospective costs of dealing with that.
‘However, with the very real possibility that such remedial costs may exceed any sensible market value the remediated site might have, it would be helpful if you could share your understanding of this difficult issue with me, while accepting that this is formally an issue for the owners, the Ministry of Defence.
‘I look forward to hearing from you.
‘Yours sincerely,
‘Jim Mather MSP
‘Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism’
How do we read this? Well – firstly – it means that our investigations have forced the admission that there is indeed site contamination. However, from other information we have, it would seem that neither the Scottish Government nor Mr Mather has suddenly become aware of this fact.
Yet, both the MoD – who has long known about this and the Scottish Government – which is not newly informed about it, have been willing to let prospective buyers be shown around the site.
Such tours have included the areas known to be contaminated. We understand that, as far as the community company members are concerned, while they were not actually shown into the underground armaments silos but they were certainly in the immediate above-ground vicinity.
And we all thought that ‘Health and Safety’ ruled these days?
The passage about the community still being able to buy the site, regardless of the HIAL lease is a sophist irrelevancy. That has never been the issue. The matter at hand has been the fact that the new – and very different – lease planned for issue to HIAL preempts options that any buyer, including the community, would wish to have the latitude to explore.
Moreover, in the same paragraph, the closing sentence saying that: ‘HIAL have no interest in the airfield beyond that part required for our airport’, is utterly misleading and cannot be uintentionally so.
Of course HIAL will have no interest in the airfield outside the new territory they may already have been given in the contentious new lease. That was their interest. This is what they’ve got.
What is also clear from this communication is that Jim Mather has not been kept in the absolute loop by Stewart Stevenson, the Transport Minister. We have thought from the outset that the dread hand of the Transport Department was mucking around at the helm of this matter – of which more tomorrow.
Beyond that, it would be naive not to acknowledge that this email carries an element of creating a post-event self-exculpatory record. The reality is that we impressed upon Mr Mather at regular intervals since yesterday that action not talking was the only thing that mattered, given the deadline of today set for the issue of the new and extended HIAL lease.
We pointed out that while Mr Mather is unusual in setting personal consequences aside where it is proper that he should do so, this particular matter raised no such issues.
It set a licensed looting operation against the clear interests of a major community in his constituency. For a constituency MSP whose mantra is community partnership and empowerment, this is the closest to a no-brainer you can get. But action came there none.
The single imperative was the halting of the issue of the proposed new lease to HIAL. Talking beforehand was a waste of time. Talking afterwards is impotent and wasteful of the time of other people who have always been worth a great deal more than this.
In the conclusions which will form the eventual final installment to this account of our investigations, we will come to an analysis of the emerging picture and of its consequences.
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This comment has been received from Mike Mackenzie, SNP candidate for Argyll and Bute in the forthcoming General Election:
‘With regard to the MOD disposal of Machrihanish what I would say is that in the first instance we need transparency from all parties involved.
‘It is my opinion that MOD have a clear responsibility firstly in properly decommissioning the site which should include any decontamination which may be necessary. If an analysis has been done into what will be involved in this then I am unaware of it. You will appreciate that being, as yet, unelected I have no right to knowledge of or sight of such a study beyond what any member of the public has.
‘At the very least MOD have a responsibility to prepare and share such an analysis with all interested parties. If they prefer not to carry out decommissioning and decontamination works themselves they have a clear responsibility in ascertaining the extent of any such works so that potential new owners can arrive at a proper evaluation of these factors.
‘A further factor determining the value of the land is what Argyll & Bute Council as the planning authority would allow in terms of future use of the site. I understand that a Masterplanning exercise is in process. Masterplanning is a process which by definition cannot be done properly without full and open consultation with all interested parties and stakeholders.
‘If MOD and ABC fulfill their obligations then this will go a long way towards ensuring a process which is fair and reasonable and which ensures a future for the site which meets the public interest and optimizes the potential socio economic benefits for the local community as far as this can reasonably be achieved.
‘Beyond this and in an effort to facilitate good practice on behalf of all concerned I fully endorse Jim Mather’s solution for most problems which is to get everyone concerned into the same room with the objective of discussing the situation openly and honestly’.
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The community have imposed tight deadlines on themselves by opting to use part 2 (not part 3 as Mr Mather states above) of the Land Reform Act. Anyone who has looked at the act will know that any community group has 6 months from the date of successful registration to hold a ballot, develop a business plan, generate all (or indeed any) necessary funding and to reach a decision as to whether or not they wish to pursue community ownership. I would therefore have thought that any August deadline has been imposed by the government in response to the communities Right to Buy application – not by the MOD.
I also think that a secure HIAL lease is a good thing. HIAL provide what is essentially a life-line service here and I would hate to think that they were expected to operate on a year-by-year basis. At the moment we have the option of community ownership – but if that fails we also have the option of it selling privately or remaining with the MOD indefinately. If a lease is not negotiated now what is to stop any of these potential owners from doubling or trebling their price and HIAL taking to the skies for good?
Re this statement: “Both Argyll and Bute Council and the Scottish Government are clear that responsibility for the site being clean rests exclusively with the MoD.”
All well and good – but neither A&BC or SG have the clout to force the MOD to sort out any liability. I think Westminster would argue that MOD budgets are better spent in Iraq and Afghanistan! And if that doesn’t happen who is going to make the judgement call re whether transfer at a few quid makes a £20million+ liability a good investment for this community?
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Anybody who believes that they are likely to get a straight deal out of the MoD cannot know much about their past performances. Any apparent bargain basement deal has to be carefully examined.
In procurement there is no government department who are less efficient or more wasteful of the nation’s resources. The UK must be littered with useless ordinance, contaminated ground, weaponry, decommisioned ships and particularly helicopters purchased at exorbitant cost and totally unfit for purpose.
Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were regularly required to personally buy items of equipment to replace substandard or missing items of essential kit.Poorly armoured vehicles have been responsible for many soldiers deaths.
In dealing with personnel one has only to recall the Deep Cut and Kintyre Chinook incidents to guage how prepared this body is to ruthlessly denigrate and miscall individuals serving their country and to go thropugh hoops to avoid meeting their responsibilities and compensating relatives.
Do you imagine that they would hesitate for a moment to offload contaminated land on to anyone willing to be taken for a ride and leave an area that has served it well with a nightmare legacy?
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This would appear to be a similar situation to that of the Holy Loch in the mid 90s. At that time, the UK Government INSISTED, as the host nation, that they had a responsibility to clear up any contamination even though the site had been occupied by the US Navy for over 30 years. They went to extraordinary lengths to assert this right even though there were many objections from the local and scientific community. Perhaps they should be reminded that THEY have already set the precedent for ensuring that the site is passed on in pristine condition.
Andy
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