AN ARMY brigade which provides emergency firefighting cover across North Yorkshire and the North-East has been told it will remain based in York.

The announcement by Minister for the Armed Forces Nick Harvey follows proposals to move the 15 (North East) Brigade’s headquarters to Catterick or to southern England.

Mr Harvey said the brigade, which also trains regular and Territorial Army soldiers at its Imphal Barracks base, would lose ten military staff, but 13 new York-based civilian jobs would be created.

York MP Hugh Bayley said: "I am relieved that York has been left relatively unscathed by these cuts. That is good news for a city with a proud military history stretching back to Roman times.”