It is already having a knock on effect. And defence arguably has too few sites, or too few that are useable, already.
The cadet forces need their own dedicated accommodation. We also need to be smarter about using alternatives (Scouts & Guides have lots of sites and I’m sure would appreciate the additional income, and some airfields have camping too).
tbf some stations do have a “Cadet block” friends in the area i know have used Henlow and Hendon in the passed.
these were blocked which were reserved for only ATC use, to such a degree there were Wing created posters on the notice boards. the ATC were “tenants” in the block, which while overseen by the station was exclusively used for the ATC and “owned” by them to use as they wished.
Back in the day the Henlow annual camps used this block.
I am not sure how well this are still used or even available.
i do know what you are getting at though.
We (our Wing) have utilised the local Scout camp in the past, although only on a sector level. I recall going there myself as a Scout. it is only good for camping accommodation wise but i am sure there are other examples, no doubt with hard accommodation which could be better made use of
Scout sites have come on a lot over the years. A few have been turned over to separate charities who’ve put in teaching rooms and kitchens and some have bunk houses. More expensive than the old school field and not much else but still affordable.
We also need to be smarter about what we use. Why are we putting, say, an NCO course or an exped into military accommodation? The priority should be activities needing access to military facilities such as armouries and ranges that can’t be accessed elsewhere.
Use scout camps for AT and the rest of the cadet estate for classroom training.
Back in the day when doing gliding courses at Syerston and Linton-on-Ouse, I remember being accommodated in dedicated cadet blocks at Newton and Linton respectively.
Many years later (but also still quite a long time ago) as a reservist I was accommodated in portacabins in a car park at Waddington, with ablutions in a separate cabin. All the notices were signed off by the ACLO, so I’m guessing these were primarily used for cadets. Back then, we never had a reservist working weekend in August due to summer camps.
I’m trying to dig deep in my memory, but i"m pretty sure that when we did Vulcan dispersal operations from Waddington to Wyton in the early 1980’s, we had railway sleeper carriages!
Adjacent to the sports field? Certainly how I remember the cadet cabins being in 2008.
I wish I could remember! On the war games, we tended to turn round the aircraft after arriving at Wyton, then sit at cockpit readiness for a while, get fed / go to the carriages (often in the dark), same for early start + scramble to simulate nuclear launch, wander back to Waddo.
Looks like AWS has just had another hiccup 
Nah it’s Microsoft this time
Which has wiped out Brightpay payroll software on the week most companies are running payroll. Thankfully I’ve only got one client affected as the rest got their payroll info across earlier in the week but accountants everywhere have everything crossed it will be up and running by morning 
I’m not receiving 2FA texts at all from Halifax, which is becoming a PITA. I assume it’s realted!
DNS broked.
It’s always DNS
OK, so they want to get some costs back, but considering I pay £0.32 per kWh at full rate (& £0.07 at cheap rate!):
Electric vehicle (EV) owners can now charge their cars using solar-powered points at a park and ride site.
Nine EV charging points have been installed by the parking bays closest to the bus stops at the site in St Ives.
Cambridgeshire County Council said the chargers used renewable electricity produced by the park and ride’s smart energy grid — a network of solar panels mounted on canopies across the site.
Powering up will cost 50p per kWh plus a fixed connection charge of £1.25 per use.
those prices are astonishing.
while i have been a EV owner for 18 months, i am still to need to charge anywhere that isn’t at home or a handful of occasions at work (and even then just to make sure i can/do so a minimum number of times in a period to maintain my “account” - work charge £0.28/unit)
anything above £0.32/unit is there to make money
and to do so while admiting the electricity is not costing them anything…daylight robbery in my opinion
(I accept the cost of the infrastructure needs to be recouped but once that has been done, that is a LOT of profit being made)
Still cheap compared to a lot of charging sites…
If it’s council owned, then “profits” are funds that can be invested elsewhere into services and infrastructure, that tax doesn’t cover or would needs to increase to cover.
I’m assuming putting in this solar charging site probably cost thousands, if not 7 figures?
It’s annoying though that public charging is still so expensive. If you can charge at home, or cheaply at work, then it’s a no brainer. But if you’d need to rely on public chargers it’d be extortionate!
much like Motorway Service Station fuel prices.
many rely on them being there to make a long (more than a fuel tank’s capacity) journey and so as it is a captive audience it makes business sense to hike the price up.
people can only park for 6-8 hours in certain car parks, and so if they have the necessary infrastructure to charge an EV it is much the same situation…
It’s a huge bank of panels, high enough to allow parking in the shade when it’s hot.
The primary aim to to charge electric buses for Park & Ride.
This is the full spec, only £5.6M 
:
Microsoft infrastructure still down - can’t access cloud features including forms and online versions of the apps (which is how we collborate for a lot of things for the squadron)