PARISH councillors plan to attend a public meeting about RAF Fylingdales' role in Son of Star Wars after being snubbed when the last one was held.

Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram is to attend the meeting, which was postponed earlier this year because of the Iraq war, and is now due to be held at 7pm on Thursday, June 26, at Thornton-le-Dale village hall, near Pickering.

Councillors, MPs and residents from across North Yorkshire are being invited to attend the event to discuss plans, given the green light by the Government earlier this year, for the base on the North York Moors to be used as part of America's national missile defence project.

Coun Murray Naylor, the deputy leader of North Yorkshire County Council and the authority's spokesman on RAF Fylingdales, who helped set up the meeting, said details had been circulated to district and parish councils in the Ryedale and Scarborough areas.

Goathland Parish Council chairman Garry Middleton said he expected the parish council would send representatives to the event, after it had been unable to attend a previous meeting in Goathland.

When the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, spoke earlier this year at a village pub, the Inn On The Moor, not one person from the council was invited, said Mr Middleton.

"We were not invited and we expressed concerns about that," he said.

"After that the parish council did get invited to the base to look round, and I am sure someone will be going to the meeting in Thornton-le-Dale."

Goathland sub-postmaster Brian Taylor said he believed the only reason a meeting was being organised now was to "calm locals down".

He said: "Mr Blair seems hell-bent on doing whatever he likes. The whole thing has been handled very shabbily.

"I don't know whether I am for or against it because I don't know all the facts. Experts can tell you anything, but you can't clarify the facts and find out the truth.

"The Government will tell you what they want."

Coun Naylor said issues of national defence and security were a matter for the Government and not for local authorities.

"However, it is important that all the issues connected with proposals at RAF Fylingdales should be debated and that local people have the opportunity to have their views heard.

"I'm delighted that Adam Ingram has agreed to attend the meeting so that he can hear at first hand the concerns of people locally and right across North Yorkshire.

"Fylingdales has played a key part in national defence and early warning since the 1960s, and it is now clear that will continue well into the future."

Updated: 10:38 Tuesday, June 03, 2003