THE Government is to cut 200 more Servicemen's jobs from the Gibraltar
garrison than planned previously, it was announced yestereday.
Armed Forces Minister Jeremy Hanley also announced that up to 600 more
civilian staff than planned will lose their jobs.
The announcement follows a review of the garrison's size and
functions, and comes as MPs brace themselves for further defence cuts
next week.
Trades unions will be consulted, and the Government is examining ways
to help the Gibraltar economy cope with the effects of the scale-down,
Mr Hanley said.
Britain currently has about 900 personnel from all three Services
stationed in Gibraltar.
Mr Hanley said: ''Under a rationalisation scheme already in progress,
Service and civilian manpower levels in Gibraltar were due to reduce to
700 and 950 respectively by 1997.
''The effect of the review will be to bring these figures to some 500
Servicemen and between 350 and 700 civilians.''
Mr Hanley said the review was conducted in the light of political and
strategic changes. Until recently, about 1700 Service personnel were
based on the Rock, but in 1990 Britain withdrew the resident battalion.
* There has been a British military presence in Gibraltar since 1704,
the year the Rock was captured from Spain. The last serious Spanish
pressure on Gibraltar came in the 1960s.
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