After staying the night there, he was driven
to Sandhurst in Camberley, Surrey, where he was fitted with
his new uniform and handed a set of black regulation boots
to break in.
The 160-mile trip is estimated to have cost taxpayers £20,000
at a time when members of the Royal Family - most notably
the Prince of Wales - have been lambasted over their lavish
use of costly private transport. Questions are also certain
to be asked about why top brass allowed the young prince to
use an RAF plane and pilot as a personal taxi service.
Senior Clarence House sources defended William's detour from
work experience to Sandhurst yesterday. "He is required
to take part in a certain amount of training prior to his
arrival - being given his uniform is only a small part of
it," one said.
"The timing was unfortunate but there was nothing William
could do about it. RAF pilots make journeys like this all
the time as part of their programme anyway."
'Spare seat given to Prince'
A Clarence House spokesman said: "Like every cadet, Prince
William is required to undertake preparatory work prior to
his entrance at Sandhurst next year. "The RAF were keen
that he had a programme that familiarised him with the full
range of work that they do, particularly as he will be the
future head of the armed forces."
A spokesman for the MoD added: "This was a planned staff
continuation training flight for the pilot. "A spare
seat in the back of the plane was given away to the prince
so he could take part in medium and low level navigation exercise.
The extra cost to the air force of this flight is nothing
- as the flight would have been made anyway."
He insisted that the journey cost only £2,000 'extra'
- £400 for fuel and £1,600 for maintenance and
servicing. But that figure does not include the cost of putting
the plane in the air in the first place, which senior sources
said would be in the region of £15,000 to £20,000.
'Hardly life or death'
"Obviously it's not unusual for us to
be roped in to transport members of the Royal Family around
the country - but this was hardly a life-or-death engagement,"
said a senior RAF source. "What has irritated us most
is the fact that he would have known long before he went up
to Wales that there was a clash of diary dates. Why not postpone
the start of his work experience and get the visit to Sandhurst
out of the way first rather than get one of the pilots to
fly him down, especially at a time when resources are so stretched?"
It is understood that William will spend two days at Sandhurst
before returning to North Wales on Saturday, this time making
his own travel arrangements.
MP Ian Davidson, a member of the Commons Public Accounts
Committee that has taken the Royals to task over their finances,
said: "This certainly seems as if Prince William is using
the RAF as a personal taxi service. "If Prince William
truly wants to experience a normal military life he needs
to stop getting special treatment now."
Another Labour MP, Andrew Mackinlay, said: "This just
will not do. In these hard pressed times for the British military,
I am sure that the RAF has better things to do than ferrying
members of the Royal Family on personal visits." |
