HAMPSHIRE is to lose hundreds of jobs after the Government announced plans to transfer defence training to Wales.

Instructors, maintenance workers and support staff at HMS Sultan in MilitaryRoad, Gosport, were today given notice their posts would be transferred to anew national training centre at St Athan.

In what amounted to a stay of execution, the Hampshire facility was told the transfer would not be completed until 2017.

The news has been described by one councillor as a "disaster" whichcould see the town lose 600 jobs.

In awarding the 25-year £16 billion public private partnership to the Metrix consortium, the government dealt a further blow to Hampshire by rejecting a rival bid by the county's defence giants VT and BAE.

VT employs 900 people at its Hedge End headquarters and its Portsmouth shipbuilding facility, while BAE, Europe's biggest defence firm, employs thousands of people across Hampshire including at its headquarters in Farnborough.

For more on this story see today's Daily Echo.