Sain Tathan Military Academy Future in Question

Plaid MEP queries military centre

Plaid Cymru's vice-president has questioned whether the party should support a military training academy at St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.
MEP Jill Evans said the proposed 5,000-job centre was inconsistent with the spirit of the party's defence policy and pacifist vision for Wales.
Her views are in a paper for the party's ruling national council in Aberystwyth on Saturday.
But Vale Labour MP John Smith said her comments were "dangerous nonsense".
Ms Evans also said that if Wales were to become independent, it should slash spending on defence and pull out of Nato.
She said Plaid should condemn what she said was the increasing militarisation of Wales.
Her paper suggested that Plaid should be committed to purely defensive armaments.
Existing military infrastructure, it said, would come under Welsh control with a chain of command answerable to the Welsh Parliament.
Plaid has been in coalition with Labour in the assembly government since last May.
She called on the assembly government to investigate any links between the private companies involved in St Athan and the international arms trade.
Building work on the centre is due to start in 2009, with the final phase expected to be completed by 2013.


The academy is predicted to provide an economic boost to the area, but will it, and should it?
Plaid has deferred the issue for further examination