Sailors move in to £125m quarters

One of the 1,761 sailors arrives at the new quarters

Sailors have started to move in to what naval chiefs are billing as "the UK's best military quarters" in a £125m development at Faslane on the Clyde.

Three of the 18 new blocks under construction at the base have opened.

For the first time, personnel will each have their own private room, en suite, with broadband and television. Staff previously shared toilets and quarters.

When finished in 2009, the blocks - said to be on a par with a modern hotel - will house 1,761 officers.

The new blocks are rated grade one, the Ministry of Defence's highest rated living standard.

Current accommodation at Faslane is graded at four

'Rough and tumble'

Able rate sailor Dave Logan, 33, from Edinburgh, who has been in the navy for seven years, was one of the first to see the new build.

He said: "I have a land posting now for two years and living in conditions like this will make all the difference.

"It is like chalk and cheese."

Hayley Calder, 19, from Inverness, who joined the navy 14 months ago, can only enjoy the luxury until December, when she joins destroyer HMS Manchester for her first trip to sea.

She said: "My own room and shower and telly and internet will be replaced by the rough and tumble of a warship at sea.

"But then that's what I signed up for and I am looking forward to it."

The ongoing revamp is timed to coincide with the arrival in 2009 of the new Astute class of hunter killer submarines, currently being built at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.

Work has begun in Greenock, Inverclyde, on a new state-of-the-art £150m floating jetty, which will be floated across to Faslane to help accommodate the new submarines.