At long last some commonsense prevails and the Ordnance Survey is going to put details of security sensitive sites on the map. This is an issue which has always seemed barking mad and slightly offensive to those of who live near to nuclear sites such as the Atomic Weapons base at Aldermaston. To look at the map and see green fields where patently a large military industrial complex sits has always been at odds with reality.
I used to sit on the Atomic Weapons Base Local Liaison Committee in my days as a councillor and raised this very issue on a couple of occasions. I was told initially that it could not be done for reasons of national security. I then produced a map of the base (kindly sent to me by some anonymous party) and asked whether or not the Committee could instead be supplied with an up to date version of my map. Queue apoplectic fits on behalf of the AWE Staff who wanted to know where this classified map had come from?
I pointed out that given the leaks from inside the base of radioactivity and documents and the name of the adjacent village (Aldermaston) it would not take a rocket scientist to locate the base. Several years later it was conceded that it would not be a problem to apply to have Aldermaston put back on the map. Finally some action appears to have been taken - It is not absolutely clear from the article in the Guardian but it looks as if the Weapons Base at Aldermaston will be restored to Ordnance Survey maps and at last I may be able to obtain a reasonably accurate map of the local area.
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Out hillwalking one day about 4 years ago, on the west side of Loch Lomond, I came across a massive military camp that isn't marked on either Landranger or Explorer series mapping. A whole glen full of bunkers, jeeps, military personnel of various sorts. I had to change route, as a seriously barbed 20 foot fence stood in my way. Probably linked to the the US nuclear submarine base a few miles away at Faslane.
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