Fifty jobs are to go at the Devonport Naval Base in Devon, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced.

The MoD has decided to turn over a large section of land to the local community for regeneration purposes.

The South Yard Enclave of the yard is being used for storage, but will now form part of the local area's regeneration plans.

Warehouses currently based on the naval site will have to be moved to other parts of the country, meaning the loss of 50 civilian jobs.

Feasibility study

The land has been earmarked as a major part of the Devonport Urban Village Project - a new residential and retail project backed by Plymouth City Council and South West Development Agency.

An MoD spokesman said the jobs move came after a feasibility study had been carried out into the relocation of the stores and warehousing at Devonport.

He said: "It concluded that there is insufficient capacity elsewhere in the naval base to accommodate the whole storage facility.

"So tasks will be relocated to Defence Storage and Distribution Agency (DSDA) facilities at Llangennech in South Wales and Donnington and to the Portsmouth naval base.

Posts lost

"Relocation will result in the loss of some 50 civilian posts at Devonport. Every effort will be made to avoid compulsory redundancies but they cannot be ruled out."

During expansion of the dockyard in the late 1950s, the MoD incorporated land surrounding Fore Street and Marlborough Street in Devonport.

Prior to World War II, when it suffered severe bomb damage, this 22-acre site was the main shopping and commercial centre of Devonport.

A wall was built to incorporate this land into the naval base - which effectively split the heart of Devonport into two.