SOUTH SOMERSET NEWS: Yeovil’s helicopter industry could be eroded away, warns Paddy Ashdown

THE Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Fallon, has again been asked for the Government to ensure the future of aerospace industry in Yeovil.

Lord Ashdown, better known as former Yeovil MP Paddy Ashdown, has written to Mr Fallon raising his continued concern of the future of aerospace manufacturing in the town following an earlier meeting with Harriett Baldwin, Under Secretary of State for Defence Procurement.

“I do want to express my concerns, substantially re-enforced after my conversation with Harriett Baldwin,” said Lord Ashdown.

“I need to repeat my warning, shared by many others, that, absent a clear and imminent statement from the Government that it sees the maintenance of a full domestic capacity to design and build helicopters in the UK - in effect in Yeovil since this the UKs only integrated base capable of doing this - then the consequence of the Apache decision, followed by the repatriation of GKN work to Italy, will be that Yeovil’s standalone capacity to design and manufacture helicopters will risk being eroded.

“The damage capable of being done as a knock on consequence of the Apache and Leonardo decisions could be very grave. But this is easily prevented if the Government now will, as a matter of urgency, make a clear public statement along the lines I have suggested above.”

Lord Ashdown said he had mentioned to Harriett Baldwin a “tweet” on social media Twitter from current Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh claiming that she had promised him the Government would be spending £3-billion with Leonardo.

“She confirmed to me that that this, as I understand it, is not in fact a new commitment relating to the present situation, but rather an already existing indicative estimate of likely expenditure over the period of the next decade,” said Lord Ashdown. “I’ve asked the Secretary of State for Defence if he would be kind enough to confirm this.”

It comes following continued uncertainty about the future of Yeovil-based GKN Aerospace which does a lot of work for the Wildcat helicopter produced by Leonardo, better known as Westlands, and also based in Yeovil.

PHOTO - TOP: Secretary of State for Defence - Michael Fallon MP.

PHOTO - ABOVE: Former Yeovil MP Paddy Ashdown, now Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon.

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