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 | | Friday, 18 January, 2002, 13:17 GMT Campaigners condemn 'stupid' plan  RAF Lyneham houses the ageing Hercules A petition by people living in Wiltshire to safeguard the future of RAF Lyneham is to be presented to the House of Commons. Lyneham is one of three air bases subject to a review by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), while a decision is made on the base for the new A400M transport plane to replace the Hercules. The Conservative MP for North Wiltshire, James Gray says he fears the airbase could close. Sam Wright, who joined the Save Lyneham group after retiring from the RAF, said: "It is just absolutely stupid to have all our air transport assets in one place.
"I can't believe any of our service chiefs can think that just one airfield with one runway is the correct thing to have in this day and age. "A crash could close it, an attack by hostile nations, the rogue state missile technology is improving by the day, terrorist action, bad weather, industrial action, the list goes on." There are about 2,500 service personnel and 50 civilian staff based at Lyneham. Speaking on a visit to RAF Lyneham, the Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has said there are no current plans to close it, but that any decision would have to await the conclusions of the MOD review. The cost effectiveness study is also considering Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and St Mawgan in Cornwall, where thousands of other RAF staff are based. There are also concerns being raised in Parliament over the future of the Boscombe Down airfield in Salisbury. Twenty five of the transport planes, manufactured by the Toulouse-based aeronautics consortium, Airbus Industrie, will be based in the UK. | |   See also: Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top England stories now:  Links to more England stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
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