Hundreds back mum's fight to save the RFA
A worried mother has seen hundreds of people sign her petition against major changes to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
More than 800 people have backed Sheena Brown's campaign against the privatisation of the RFA.
Earlier this month, The News revealed that the navy was planning to cut the network of staff and ships that keeps Britain's fleet afloat.
So Mrs Brown – whose daughter works for the RFA – launched a petition on the Downing Street website in opposition.
And within just a few days her supporters number nearly 1,000.
She said: 'I'm staggered by the speed at which people have signed up to this, it just shows the anger about what's happening.
'My husband was in the RFA in the 1970s and my daughter is now. It's hard to explain to people how important their job is.
'They put themselves in war zones and do work that is very complicated, it would be very foolish to get rid of the fleet auxiliary.'
As previously reported in The News, senior RFA staff were called into a special meeting at the navy's command headquarters on Whale Island in Portsmouth.
There, the RFA's Commodore, Bill Walworth, told stunned staff that they were to face a fresh review - just three years after the last one.
Since that October 26 meeting the RMT union has vowed to fight the changes, understood to have been forced on the navy by the Treasury after lobbying from private firms with spare capacity.
Mrs Brown, from St Ronan's Road, Southsea, said: 'The argument that you can save money by passing this work to a private firm is crazy, not least because of the arms supplies that the ships carry. It takes a long time to carry out proper security checks, so what chance do you have if the navy's ammunition is being dealt with by private workers?'
The navy has worked out the terms of reference for its review, which will be carried out over the coming months.
But they will not be made public until the review is mentioned in the Treasury's pre-budget report on Wednesday, December 9.
>> Vote in our latest web poll.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
