Fears are mounting that North Yorkshire could be hard hit by planned cuts in the Territorial Army.

Gulf War tension has meant the announcement of the cuts, which was expected today, has been postponed until tomorrow because of a debate about the showdown with Iraq.

But the TA is expected to be reduced by 16,000 troops to 40,000 - and leaks suggest that the North East and Scotland will be badly affected by plans to cut the number of battalions.

Defence Secretary George Robertson told BBC's On the Record programme yesterday that the Government wanted to strengthen and modernise the TA, despite the expected cuts in personnel.

He said: "We're going to give it better training, more relevant training, roles and duties which are to do with tomorrow's threats and not yesterday's threats - a big section of the TA is there and training for an impending Soviet invasion of the UK.

"We want to make it better integrated with the Regular Army. We want it more readily available and we're going to make the investment that will make that possible. We're actually going to strengthen the Territorial Army."

Former TA officer and Scarborough businessman John Senior said he feared isolated rural areas like the resort would lose any connection with the Army if their link with the reserve force was broken.

Mr Senior has been at the forefront of a campaign to save Scarborough's Territorial Army centre and any closure would have a knock-on effect on recruitment and the town itself.

He said he feared that the TA rule that soldiers must live within 30 miles of their base could leave large parts of eastern North Yorkshire without any TA if York was the nearest centre.

"In these smaller towns the Territorial Army is one of the centres, it really is a basis of many of the functions in the community, like here in Scarborough."

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