The facility was set up as a subsidiary of Southampton's Andark Diving ten ago, under licence from the MoD, which runs Horsea as a military dive training centre.
The original idea, agreed by Andark and the MoD, was that Horsea should be utilised more fully by providing civilian as well as military dive training. Since then the sport diving centre has been used, it is said, by between 8000 and 10,000 trainees a year, with the centre investing in facilities and in-water attractions.
Divers have come from commercial centres and clubs spread over a 100-mile radius, including BSAC, PADI and disabled-diving organisations. By contrast, only about 350 military divers are thought to train at Horsea annually.
In early March, however, Horsea Island Dive Centre was informed that its licence would not be renewed. The MoD cited security concerns as a main issue governing the decision, but has not expanded further on its position.
The centre won an extension, based on an agreement to ensure effective security clearance and on-site escort of diving visitors. But on 23 June, it was told that closure was definite. Sport-diving operations ceased on 29 June, with two full-time and up to 10 part-time staff being told that their jobs were gone.
Horsea was the country's only inland saltwater lake available to sport divers, and represented a sheltered training venue which cannot be replicated in the region.
'This decision by the military represents a great loss to UK diving,' Andark boss Andy Goddard, who ran the Horsea centre, told Divernet. 'In 10 years at Horsea, we never had a single diving accident or, come to that, security-related incident.
'I now worry because, make no mistake, the closure will lead to divers sometimes taking to the water in less safe places, with possibly harmful results.'
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