WIREDGOV

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has awarded a contract worth £17-million to Kier Graham Defence Ltd to ready Bassingbourn Barracks for the relocation of the British Army’s Mission Training and Mobilisation Centre (MTMC).

The MTMC delivers crucial pre-deployment training for approximately 12,500 personnel every year and has recently trained a battlegroup heading out to Afghanistan on Operation Toral. This operation sees British personnel training, advising and assisting their Afghan colleagues and providing protection and security.

The project includes the refurbishment of some of the existing buildings at Bassingbourn Barracks including accommodation blocks, social facilities, offices, classrooms and training areas. The existing medical and dental centres will also be refurbished together with the construction of 2 new training facilities. The work associated with this contract will provide infrastructure that will allow MTMC to train effectively in one location.

The works are part of Project Hercules and follows on from the first phase of work to bring the barracks back into use by the British Army. Project Hercules supports the MOD’s continuing optimisation of the defence estate by co-locating capability and enabling the disposal of sites that the military no longer needs.

The first stage of the MTMC move saw its Kent-based elements relocate to Bassingbourn in December 2018. Work to be completed under this contract will allow the relocation of the other elements of MTMC from Chilwell Barracks in the Midlands. It will also allow the MTMC to be fully operational at Bassingbourn, with up to 1,000 staff and troops on site at peak times.

Gillian Naylor, DIO’s senior project manager said:

We are pleased to announce the award of this contract to Kier Graham Defence Ltd to refurbish and improve existing facilities at Bassingbourn Barracks to enable the MTMC units to train effectively in one location. This is a great example of how DIO supports our armed forces by providing the places they need to live, work, train and deploy on operations.

Commander MTMC, Colonel Neil Unsworth OBE said:

I am delighted to see the contract award for the next phase of development here in Bassingbourn. The Armed Forces have long and proud linkages with the local community which we have already started to redevelop, and I look forward to seeing the growth of this in line with our development in Bassingbourn.

Mark Dady, Managing Director of Kier Regional Building Eastern, said:

We’re extremely proud to continue our working relationship with DIO delivering crucial infrastructure at Bassingbourn Barracks to allow effective pre-deployment training in one location. This project builds on our extensive expertise in the defence sector, where we are currently on-site delivering new infrastructure to ready MOD Lyneham for the move of 5 Battalion REME as part of the Army Basing Programme.

Work is expected to start this month and complete in summer 2021.