America’s UK bases way past their sell-by date | @guardianletters

You do my heart good, Seumas Milne (70 years of foreign troops? We should close the bases, 23 January). Someone has noticed they are still here, and so are we who live beyond the fences. The people of East Anglia have grown used to their neighbours, living amiably enough with them and tolerating the inconveniences that pervade daily life. The great majority of East Anglians claim to understand the need for the presence of the visiting forces, a view that perhaps fails to take into account the major changes the world has seen. The myth persists that the local economies depend on the bases despite the fact that this has not been the case for many a long year.

Very occasionally the temperature is raised, an example being in the aftermath of the Libyan bombings in 1986. The bombers that took part in that raid flew from Lakenheath, which as well as being a USAF base is an English village. The village quite reasonably felt reprisals were likely and reacted vociferously. The Americans retreated; it is now rare to find them involved in community activities. All shops in three towns and all the villages traded in both UK and US currencies. This has now stopped. The forces rely entirely on their own resources for all goods and services. Little America (or Instant Sunshine as it is known to US forces) is as distant from the locals as the US mainland. But they are digging in. Housing outside the base has been abandoned in favour of new homes safe inside. From where I stand, just this side of the border, I see no sign of a retreat.

So many people, including my late husband, Cyril, and the legendary John Bugg, spent many years trying to show how futile this presence had become. I suppose we must believe that the weapons have gone, and that RAF (one lone squadron leader) Lakenheath is now a training facility. This must be a very expensive way to fund training and the noise is not abated. I have a dream for that vast space: what a perfect place for a wind farm and a new incinerator. Now, that would benefit the local economy and allow us to listen to the Archers.
Pam Brown
Lakenheath, Suffolk

• The freeing of brownfield land on this scale and with good communications and utility services should be the catalyst for at least six new towns, with some of the social housing our people need so much. One assumes that the MoD still owns these areas – that they have not been sold to foreign owners and leased back – so development should be for the public good in many ways. So what are we waiting for? The idea could be sold to the US as a cash saving for them and might even appeal to the Republicans.
Andrew Carmichael
Preston

• Seumas Milne mentions the 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement, which facilitates the co-operation on which the UK’s nuclear weapons programme depends and was last renewed …read more