I would have to agree; you would need to be an ayslum seeker to have a bath like that in your accommodation.
Please don't don't tell me standards have slipped that much since I have been out.

I'm afraid the fauilt for this lies with Mrs Thatcher - and I speak as a Tory supporter and former service dependant. Married quarters and the estate used to be controlled by the services but Mrs T saw fit to hand it to a private sector interested only in their profit. They have captive tenants who cannot easily afford to live anywhere else.

Just so you don't all feel special by having these great buildings (and I'm just lucky I don't live here) but my work place is still using buildings built in the 1940's with similar standards to those you describe....no hot water, heating leaking steam causing corrosion and damp, tiles missing from toilets, flooding over the floor from blocked drains etc etc etc.....

But then again what do you expect when someone gets a bonus relating to how little of the infrastructure budget they spend in a year.

It happens in the civii world as well, We are just lucky we only have to spend 9 hours a day in it.

S_R

Do You work in an area that is exempt from H and S rules?

This is what life is like in Dalton Barracks, Abingdon


The Officers’ Mess needs work to comply with current fire legislation (est 70k), that money has not been found despite it being on a works services priority for the last two years. The consequence has been the closure of a complete wing. The Commanding Officer has to take the health and safety of his officers at risk. The decision point is about to be reached, where the CO has told the chain of command that unless rectification work is started in the next month 35 living-in single officers will be moved into private accommodation in Abingdon, (at a cost in the first 6 months that far exceed the work required to the Mess), needless to say there is rarely any hot water either.

The soldiers are in just as bad accommodation. Only one block is Grade 1, so 150 solders have the ‘jam tomorrow’ promised accommodation. The vast majority live in accommodation not changed since being built in 1932, except that no money has been spent since.

Let me give you just one example of the service we have to put up with and manage in terms of the soldiers expectations. New white goods were purchased under a budgetary funding line to provide new washing machines and dryers for every wing of every block. They arrived brand new, but when they were placed in the accommodation it was found that the plumbing and water pressure in the accommodation could not sustain their usage – so they were withdrawn and remain in our QM’s store! No money to update the plumbing.

We were informed at the beginning of this FY that all works services (ie infrastructure repair) was to be frozen within Abingdon (it actually was much more wide spread within the region). The impact of this was that simple repairs, loo seats, broken showers went un-repaired. I had to explain this to my soldiers. The position changed in the second half of the FY and we now have a slightly improved situation.

Finally the most disgraceful situation is that our medical centre is not fit for purpose. The Army Primary Health Care service has stated that the med centre it is not fit for its clinical need, yet monies needed for refurbishment or replacement do not exist. We have to employ a corporal to drive a mini bus of sick soldiers to Aldershot to be treated in Frimely Park instead. Yet both regiment are trying to generate fit soldiers for Iraq and Afgan next year. Commander Field Army has visited Abingdon, it remains 4 Div’s highest priority, yet all we see are aspirations and promises. I will not discuss the holes in the roads, no lighting across the camp, but guess what the chain of command’s solution is – they are trying to squeeze another Regiment in here in 2008!!

My opinion?

Peeling paint and mould, broken doors and ripped carpets should be dealt with immediately by the system. Underinvestment is rife and is shameful.

Dirty baths? Clean it yourselves you fezzing bastards. Who do you think cleans my quarter?