BULLDOZERS have moved in to demolish substandard accommodation at East Yorkshire's main military base.
Multi-million pound new development will bring a major boost for the Defence School of Transport (DST) at Leconfield.
There had been concerns the base, which teaches members of the Armed Forces to drive and is a major contributor to the local economy, could be threatened by defence cuts.
But the new investment in accommodation will be viewed as a significant step towards securing the base's future for years to come.
Chief of Staff Lieutenant Colonel Carol Prosser said: "The old modular buildings came to DST from the Channel Tunnel Project and had outlived their lifespan by ten and 14 years.
"They therefore had extremely high maintenance costs and accounted for a large proportion of our repair budget.
"The new state-of-the-art accommodation will improve the quality of life and living conditions for students at DST considerably".
Demolition is now under way to replace the outdated buildings with four new state of the art accommodation blocks to house 768 military personnel attending driver training courses at the base.
It comes after the MoD had insisted the old blocks were "in dire and urgent need of replacement".
The MoD had said in its design statement: "The cabins have deteriorated to such a state that, for some time now, they have presented a serious health and safety risk to the students.
"They are overcrowded, dilapidated, damp, foul smelling, energy-inefficient and noisy, particularly when exposed to the wind on an exposed site such as Leconfield.
"A large number of students have reported that their modular block experience had left them feeling tired and unable to concentrate fully on driver training, mainly due to sleep deprivation. This substandard accommodation features regularly as a conversation topic on social networking sites."
The MoD had also said the remaining eight brick buildings erected in the 1930s were also in urgent need of replacement.
They were described as "overcrowded, dilapidated, energy- inefficient and noisy."
The MoD, under pressure to equip soldiers with the skills needed for operations in Afghanistan, was concerned the renowned training offered at Leconfield could be undermined by shabby accommodation at Normandy Barracks.
It had stated: "The training facilities are world-class and renowned.
"However, without the accommodation to support these training facilities, students will continue to suffer sleep deprivation, which may have a serious impact on their core and operational driver training."
The scheme will remove eight of the worst buildings and replace them with four new four-storey accommodation buildings.
The scheme has been designed to create a campus-style arrangement of accommodation, allowing for greater flexibility in the future accommodation development.
Colonel Rob Peacock, commandant at DST, said he was delighted to be involved in progress towards making the lives of trainees at DST so much better.
He said: "DST and Lend Lease staff and contractors are working really well together to maintain the daily output during a complex project in the heart of the barracks."
The new accommodation will be ready by spring 2015.
• See b/w archive Flashback images of the former RAF Leconfield base
