FRESH DOUBTS were today cast over RAF Cosford’s hopes of staying alive as a military base after Defence Secretary Liam Fox announced plans to move defence training to the south west.

It means the fate of the air base remains in limbo as decisions on the future of airfields are discussed as part of Ministry of Defence cuts which will affect the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people.

RAF Cosford’s future was first thrown into jeopardy in 2009 after a £14 billion contract to become the principal training centre for all three armed forces – and with it the creation of at least 2,500 jobs – was awarded to RAF St Athan.

The project was scrapped in October because it was no longer affordable – opening up the possibility of studies for a lower-cost replacement.

But campaigners’ hopes that the Shropshire airbase would become the UK’s centre for military training were dashed yesterday as Mr Fox unveiled the details of his defence review.

Mr Fox said RAF St Lyneham, in Wiltshire, was the preferred location for future defence technical training.

The minister also announced four regional division headquarters for the Army – including 5th Division, based at Copthorne Barracks in Shrewsbury – would be shut.

There are no plans to shut the barracks itself but there are now doubts over the future of jobs in the division, which has a 100-plus workforce including both military and civilian staff.

The HQs will be disbanded by August 2012 and replaced by a single support command based in Aldershot.

On RAF Cosford, Robert O’Harney, the base’s branch secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: “This means the base faces an uncertain future and we are back to square one.

“We believe the best value for money would be to bring the defence training centre to RAF Cosford because the actual investment required for Lyneham will be huge.”

But Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard said he believed the site at Cosford still had a future for at least 10 to 15 years in its current form.

By London Reporter Sunita Patel