Even today, fewer than 700, 000 out of around 1.8m lone parents have maintenance arrangements in place.

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Ian Larby, secretary of air search, said the grant allowed essential maintenance to take place, which otherwise could have seen the plane grounded.

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The team is based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, although has been temporarily relocated to RAF Cranwell, also in Lincolnshire, while maintenance work takes place on the runway at Scampton.

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Its last maintenance check in the hangar took place on 16 April 2009.

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Mr Astle said the company's transport manager "failed to ensure the necessary systems for maintenance of vehicles" had been place and also "failed even to be aware of the extent to which there was such failure".

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The authority said it would create four extra maintenance teams in addition to 10 already in place.

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