Court battle looms over plan to join regiments

A CONTROVERSIAL plan to merge the Royal Scots with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers faces being delayed by a legal challenge.

Campaigners have lodged a petition at Edinburgh Sheriff Court arguing that the Government has no power to amalgamate the regiments because the KOSB was established by an Act of Parliament more than 300 years ago.

The Edinburgh branch of the KOSB Association says that means only an Act of Parliament can alter the regiment, which was founded by the Scottish Parliament in 1689.

It is thought that even if the legal bid is rejected, there is a strong chance the plans by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon to merge the two battalions and create a super regiment could be delayed.

The law firm representing the association, Alexander Moffat and Co, also handled the return of the Stone of Destiny to Scotland in 1996. Donald Fairgrieve, a signatory to the petition and a former KOSB officer, said: "The Act which brought the regiment into being was never rescinded. We have done our homework thoroughly."

A spokesman for the MoD said: "The proposal to form a union . . . was put forward by the Council of Scottish Colonels as the best way to achieve the required reduction. We will not act outside the law."