"Defence chiefs should consider abandoning Devonport Dockyard"

A PLYMOUTH MP today rubbished a report that the Navy should consider abandoning bases such as Devonport Dockyard because of the increased threat of flooding.

The Armed Forces should think about moving from coastal sites because of worsening storms and rising sea levels, a secret official report has warned.

The Royal Navy bases in Plymouth and Portsmouth faced a “direct impact” from floods by 2020, it was claimed.

But Plymouth Sutton MP Oliver Colvile said: “I think this was dreamt up as an April fool or drawn up by a bureaucrat who has never left London.

“The one thing that the Navy needs is water.”

The authors of the report, drawn up in 2007, said defence chiefs had to move away from the “Canute syndrome”, a reference to the 11th century English King reputed to have unsuccessfully ordered the sea to retreat.

The MoD would have to decide whether to “abandon, manage retreat, or defend robustly” vulnerable sites along the coast of major rivers.

The dangers were outlined in a series of internal MoD reports on the potential effects of climate change seen by The Daily Telegraph.

One memo lists 13 of the most important military bases in Britain and notes that nine of them could face a “direct impact” on their “core location” from floods by 2020 if nothing is done to tackle the emissions linked to climate change.

They include the naval bases at Plymouth, Portsmouth and on the Clyde, RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, the Army garrisons at Aldershot, Catterick and Colchester, and the MoD’s main building along the River Thames in London.

Mr Colvile said that billions of pounds had been invested at Devonport Naval Base, which was the only place in the UK where deep overhaul of submarines can take place.

He added that the recent floods had not affected the dockyard, but he would raise the threat of flooding with Government ministers.

The MOD say the report was compiled in 2007 and has now been extensively updated with more current research.

They say they have no intention of making any drastic changes to policies on Devonport and that they have robust processes in place to prepare for the effects of climate change and any future flooding.