ARMY chiefs claim ministers are refusing to invest in Maidstone's Invicta Park Barracks because of long term plans to close the base.

Speaking to business leaders at a breakfast meeting, Lt Col Nick Elliott MBE, commander of 36 Engineer Regiment, admitted he did not know what the future held for the barracks.

He said: “These things change on a daily basis, but there are no current plans to move us from Maidstone.”

But information obtained from Maidstone Borough Council under the Freedom of Information Act appears to indicate the regiment is resigned to moving on.

Around 800 soldiers are currently based there. In October 2005, the then Mayor of Maidstone, Cllr John Horne, received a letter from Lt Col Elliott in reply to questions about various base issues.

In the letter, the commander made the following admission, saying “...the MOD is unwilling to invest in Maidstone given that we will almost certainly move in the medium to long term future and are currently only guaranteed to be here until 2012”.

The Secretary of State for Defence, John Reid confirmed in a letter to Maidstone and the Weald MP Ann Widdecombe that the barracks would be “kept under review for disposal in the longer term.”

Miss Widdecombe said the commander’s letter would fuel fears that the army’s association with the town is coming to an end.

She said: “I can say this confirms everything I have detected that there has been an assumption for some time that these barracks have no long term future. I believe it does and should have.”