Reading the item the man comes across as everything that you would despise and not a credit to the organisation which he represents. As a parent he would not endear me to an organisation that is voluntary for my kids to do. I’m a member of the organisation and his attitude is not right.
It makes you wonder what RFCA are doing coughing £10K for using the school. Why haven’t they said that’s too much and looked for a different location. Why hasn’t someone said something to the squadron and to the DF, they need to find somewhere cheaper.
How many of the cadets will travel to any of those squadrons? I sincerely hope all of the staff and cadets on all the units closing say no thanks and leave. I bet a few of the Wing Staff are wondering what’s going to happen as they may well lose their cushy little numbers and have to go back to squadrons.
When Cameron joined the Air Cadets nearly 2 years ago there was only aprox 4 cadets there. Cameron has worked hard in recruiting and promoting 2200DF and has expanded it to 22 cadets so far. There are also young people waiting till they turn 12 so they can join too!
This Detached Flight is clearly growing, and actually has more cadets than my Squadron, yet no one is interested in closing us (yet), with the growth they have seen over the past 2 years and a waiting list they are not far aware from the move to full Sqn Status.
The usual cost cutting reasons were given and lots of figures were banded about indicating the cost of keeping 2200DF, including a £10,000 annual bill for the use of Saddleworth School on Mondays and Wednesdays.
I thought that there is no central funding for DF Premises, and must be funded by the parent Squadron, it seems to me that if the growth continued and they moved to Squadron Status it would be for the RFCA to pick up this bill, and I doubt there is the budget to do so…
The alternative Squadrons x3 are all within a 7 mile radius of the current squadron in various directions, so it’s not unreasonable to suggest closing this unit, in order to provide a better experience at these other squadrons with larger cadet & Staff numbers… I think it’s a poorly managed closure by a volunteer who lacks the experience, but has a rank that means they can say this and it becomes so…
So there are 3 squadrons in a 7 mile radius, that’s all very well to say, but does not take into account the difficulties in transport in particular in winter given the weather in that area next Saddleworth Moor buses etc.
One look at Google maps just shows how remote this Squadron is and is part of a small community, this Wing Commander is an ivory tower dwelling fool, who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
The saddest thing is this man was at one time on a squadron, and running one or more and like all Wing Staff the longer they are away from the real ATC, ie squadrons, they lose sight of what it’s really about.
How many other Wings are reducing the number of Squadrons and are they doing in favour of the CEP? Just one look at that squadron’s position knows that the comment that there are 3 Squadrons within 7 miles whilst acciurate is practical b/s.
At some stage others outside the ACO are going to start taking an interest in how the organisation is run.
We’ve been money away on nonsense projects & mismanagement of our core activities for years. No one external has shown an interest yet. I sometimes ponder a letter to the Select Committee though, or the NAO.
DF accommodation is paid for by RFCA, so the fact this has ended up costing £10K pa shows that RFCA have acted like any public sector body and just paid the money and not queried it until it’s too far gone. If you had a contract for something and the cost kept creeping up, you’d be on it in a flash.
They should have told Wing, the Sqn and DF that they need to find somewhere cheaper. Then if they didn’t find somewhere cheaper that’s their look out.
Practical things like the distances people travel will not even enter into the equation.
I know HQAC like a survey, why not one that asks how far do you travel to your squadron, which should then be a guide to something like this. Squadrons could do it for all their staff and cadets. If it comes at much more than 3 miles for cadets and say 5 miles for staff I would be surprised. Staff can come from HTD info. The maximum distance staff drive on my squadron is 5¼ miles, the average for the 5 staff is a shade under 3 miles. All of the cadets live within an average of about 2 miles road.
As with all stats there will be outliers, but I bet the curve peak would be quite telling.
So shut this DF and it will rob the community of something valuable.
Isn’t GM WHQ still in the city centre, then? I hadn’t realised it had moved! £600,000 is a lot for a WHQ - they could rent a portacabin for years for a fraction of that!
There’s such a huge discrepancy between urban and rural areas, though.
The Wing in question has 30-odd units in an area stretching about 30 miles north to south and like the letter said, 3/4 sqns in a few miles.
But the sqn I belonged to as a cadet is in a much more rural area, I traveled 10 miles to the squadron, and the next nearest was another 15 miles on top of that.
If all sqns were judged on the basis of where I grew up, then a city like Manchester would have 2 sqns.
Or, if all were based on urban squadrons, then some rural places would have 2 cadets.