Britain plans further cut in North troops

BRITISH troop levels in the North are being cut again because of the improving security situation, it was announced yesterday.

Two infantry battalions under the command of the GOC Northern Ireland are being reassigned to other duties as they are no longer required to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Ministry of Defence said.

Three Royal Navy Hunter Class patrol vessels - HMS Brecon, HMS Cottismore and HMS Dulverton - which have been on duty along the Northern coast for the past six years, will also be withdrawn by April 2007.

The decision will effectively bring to an end the Royal Navy’s involvement in the North.

The news came as British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon announced big cuts in armed forces manpower to the House of Commons.

The two army battalions being released - neither currently in the North - are the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, based in Colchester in Essex, and the 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment based at Fort George, Inverness.

They will be transferred on September 1 from the command of the GOC Northern Ireland, Lieutenant General Philip Trousdell, to that of the Commander in Chief Land Command, headquartered at Wilton near Salisbury. Last month, the 1st Battalion, The Devon and Dorset Regiment and the Queen’s Dragoon Guards were transferred from the Northern Ireland command.

The GOC Northern Ireland currently has 13,600 service personnel under his command - 11,700 of them soldiers - although not all are actually based in the North.

The September cuts will reduce total numbers available to him to 12,700.

Democratic Unionist Party MP Nigel Dodds hit out at the cuts, saying they would cause real concern to many people in Northern Ireland.

The North Belfast MP said: “There remains a high degree of instability and insecurity in many communities.”

He said the Provisional IRA retained the capacity to inflict serious terrorism when it wished to do so and it was “madness to take any risk which could place those communities in greater danger”.

Mr Dodds said there would also be “bewilderment and anger” at the plan to axe the three patrol vessels.

“Given the smuggling operations, including arms shipments, which have taken place through the ports and Ulster waters, it is ludicrous for the government to be putting forward such madcap schemes,” he said.

Urging Mr Hoon to think again and keep the vessels, he also asked what was going to replace them.