Benson/Cottesmore/Leuchars/Waddington.. help deciding please

Rainbow_Butterfly

My hubby is currently doing his A tech M course and we are putting together our top 3 posting choices ready for the powers that be to look at.

We have narrowed it down to the top 4 as above, and would really appreciate any insider info you guys have to differentiate between them.

Also any other suggestions would be fab with the exception of:
Lossie/Kinloss - just too far from the grandparents for the kids
Coningsby - too close to in laws :rolleyes: (they actually live @ coningsby before someone points out that waddington and cottesmore arnt far away :eek:)
Marham - its Marham!! :rotfl:we will have this as negative choice.

any info greatly recieved, particually if anyone has had babies at the nearby hospitals. :T

Thanks for now.. I shall be off to bed and stop overusing the emoticons!!

jacand

Hi, we're at Waddo, have been here since Dec. Don't know what kind of info your looking for, but I would be willing to answer any questions for you.
I find it quite a decent camp. I have a little one, but he was born in Kings Lynn, when we were at Marham, so I can't comment on the maternity dept at Lincoln, although I do know loads of mums that have given birth there and they say it wasn't bad.
Just pm me with any questions and I'll try to answer.

Tracy_in_the_house

Lived at Leuchars for nearly 15 years but wouldnt recommend it anymore really if you have older children.

Locally its really handy and can travel most places fairly easily driving or by train. Jobs are few a far between unless you are willing to travel ie St Andrews/Dundee. Buses can be infrequent.

Hospitial is in Dundee - Ninewells and has an excellent reputation as a teaching hospitial, nurses are lovely, but it is a teaching hospitial - despite saying i didnt want students watching me give birth on numerous occasions - during labour the door opens and 8 walk in leaving the door open at the crucial moment! My family thought it was quite funny though! especially when an engineer then popped his head round and asked if he could do work in the room now- yes i was embarressed....

Primary school is very local and ok. Only high school is in St Andrews (Madras College) for the catchment area which is split between 2 buildings.

There is really not that much in the village - spar/ancient cafe/ chinese/chippy/ butchers and 2 pubs (Hendies & The Commy) On base amenitites are the usual

Quarters are not the worst i have lived in but they certainly rank in the lower end of the scale... (only my personal opinion)

WhiteThierry

im based at cottesmore, to be honest road travel-wise its probably the best located base in the uk, and your only 50 miles from those coningsby relatives, its also quite easy to get as a posting, but the reason for that is that not that many people want to come here, same as benson, leuchars and waddo on the other hand are 2 of the most popular. The front line squadrons here are good but the 2nd line is a joint raf/navy/civilian hell hole. Ive served on both for a short while so i feel that that is quite accurate. Benson he'll be in afghan all the time if hes front line, leuchars is on wind down at the moment because they're drawing down the tornado fleet up there so its unlikely he'll get that. Waddington has the reputation of being a very cosy family base and is very difficult to get to, but very well liked if you get there. It depends on so many things, but on balance if i was married id pick Waddington/Leuchars/Cott/Benson in that order. pm me if you want to know any more about cottesmore.

ps, i dont know about the local hospitals but i can ask someone if you need.

EDIT: if you like cott but want your husband to go away less, you could always try 20sqn just down the road at wittering, its a training sqn so they dont go away much and wittereing is a nicer camp than cottesmore

Rainbow_Butterfly

Thanks all for info so far, anything is usefull to try and narrow it down to 3 from the 4 we have.

Tracy - Is there a nursery on camp @ leuchars do u know? And what is it about the quarters that you dont like? We are squeezed into a teeny tiny type B grade 4 @ cosford at the moment, so anything would be an improvement on this!

Thierry - What is it that is nicer about wittering than cottesmore? I work with someone that has lived at both as hubby was on harriers and she said they had awful problems with the mq @ wittering as some of them had been sold off and the civvy teenagers were running riot on the estate.

Our posting wont be until spring, just trying to get our ideas together and choices in ready - do you know if/when eurofighters are moving to leuchars as this is what hes hoping to work on?
Benson is our safety choice really - hopefully if that is on there it should save us from being sent back to Marham, as the majority of people finishing courses here are being sent there at the minute.

Thanks again for info.

WhiteThierry

to be fair, i dont really know much about the quarters at wittering, its just for a young family your husband will probably spend a lot more time in this country if he's at wittering and the camp just seems to be overall more pleasant than cottesmore. Glad to see their still posting everyone to crap places like marhan. :rotfl: it wasn't just my course then!

as for leuchars its around 2012 for the typhoon so i wouldn't get your hopes up, i think they've only just ordered the aircraft that they want up there. There will still be some slots on the F3's up there but they'll be few and far between id imagine

Tracy_in_the_house

As far as i know they are getting Eurofighter tail end of next year.(Dont quote me though) I will do some digging At the air day on Saturday they said some will be here for the next event (ie Sept 14th)

Yes there is nurserys on station and in the village. (Mine are alot older now so cant really help on which is best)

Quarters - Some really big 3/4 bedrooms, scabby looking, cracks in the walls, cold, damp, drafty and next door to the runway......

2 bedrooms - Tiny, In livingroom we could only fit a 2 seater settee & single chair both up against walls no table etc. We had to sell our kingsize bed as it wouldnt fit either. Cold, no double glazing, gaps around windows, mould/condensation. We had got moved on health grounds because of the quarter.

There are other quarters near the school that we moved into that were really nice (slightly old fashioned looking) but very spacious, double glazing but i have a funny feeling that loads of them have been sold off now.

We ended up just buying a house in the village.

huskypup

Hi

I live at Wittering, in one of the houses that was sold off, Im a service wife - so Im not service bashing - if anything its the military kids that are running riot - 90% of the houses that were sold off, were two beds so not really family friendly.

I am stationed at Witt and hubby at Cottesmore - and I would live at Wittering anytime, the quarters are not behind the wire and the village is surrounded by fields and walks (and the A1!! before anyone mentions it). Location wise Wittering is perfect. Cottesmore quarters are on camp ,and if I remember from my last visit some of the houses you can see the flight line and the hangers - so no escaping, and like someone said more chance of being away.

Witt has an excellent preschool and daycare centre and the village school has a really good teacher student ratio.

Not alot in Oakham for Cottesmore, Stamford and Peterborough for Wittering for shopping and nightlife.

Never done the other camps, but we have no intention of moving from Wittering.

pm me if you need anything else

WhiteThierry

well said on the military brats, they're a nuisance here in the singlies patch at cottesmore, stealing beer cans out of peoples room windows, glueing the button on the pedestrian crossing in so that the lights go red every minute (though i have to admit that was a genius idea):rotfl:

Rainbow_Butterfly

Husky - I have no idea about who was causing the trouble, this was just what my friend told me was going on - I dont mean to offend anyone and can well believe that the military kids can be just as bad!!!

Leuchars isnt looking such a great option then.. and looking like we wont match up with eurofighter timescales (which im sure will be put back year on year like everything else is!!)

our current train of thought is..
- waddington
- harriers
- benson

Any more info greatly recieved, its fab to know what we are potentially letting ourselves in for!

Hubby wondered if anyone knows how often you are away on boats @ cottesmore - he heard a couple of months a year from one of his friends but this might be rubbish.

Rainbow_Butterfly

WhiteThierry wrote: »

Glad to see their still posting everyone to crap places like marhan. :rotfl: it wasn't just my course then!

The last 2 A Tech M courses that have finished, 13/16 and 8/16 have gone to Marham!!! :eek: