We’re working hard to get the facilities at the new Defence College of Logistics, Policing and Administration, a £300 million tri-service facility in Worthy Down, ready to welcome military personnel and their families.
The site is currently home to The Defence College of Logistics, Policing and Administration (DCLPA) and HQ Adjutant General’s Corps. In early 2021, the new facilities being built will be completed and will see service personnel from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force all training at Worthy Down. Having all three services’ training at one site allows them to share resources, technology and learn from each other.
Buildings under construction
An important building we’re currently working on is the combined medical, dental and physical training centre, which will help look after the health and wellbeing of all service personnel and offer leading-edge equipment and expertise.
Other facilities underway at the moment include large medical and dental centre facilities, gymnasium, fitness and physiotherapy suites, four single living accommodation (SLA) units, an officers’ and senior non-commissioned officers’ combined mess, a band and drill area, a headquarters building, the Royal Logistics Corp (RLC) museum and a number of realistic working environment spaces for specialist Navy training.
The SLA bed spaces will accommodate service personnel coming from HMS Raleigh, Princess Royal Barracks and RAF Halton. It is being constructed using a combination of traditional and modular methods which help to reduce carbon emissions. We’ve also demolished over 75 buildings, recycling 96% of materials.
Interesting facts
To date, 90,000sqm of floor space has been built and 1 million bricks were used to provide the college with a 154-seat lecture theatre, 60 brand new homes and a 358-seat canteen in the Junior Ranks Mess. Tranche 2 sees a total of 1,231 bed spaces created over 10 new accommodation blocks. And the site’s new, larger water tank holds 324,000 litres of water, half the capacity of an Olympic-sized swimming pool! More than 15,000 metres of pipes and cables – equal to nearly twice the height of the Mount Everest – have been installed underground to accommodate current and future power, water and drainage needs.
The new buildings are due to be completed by early 2021. The completion of the facilities will allow the MOD to train service personnel more efficiently and effectively so that they can provide the best possible support for military operations.
Project Wellesley
We’ve worked alongside Skanska, AECOM and the Defence, College of Policing and Administration Project teams to deliver tranche 1 and 2 of the 3 tranches of building works which form part of Project Wellesley. The facilities have all been completed whilst ensuring the camp remains operational.
Building Worthy Down is one part of a 2-part scheme which forms project Wellesley. The second part of the project is the development of a new community called Mindenhurst in Deepcut, Surrey at the former Princess Royal Barracks. The project will help the MOD rationalise its estate and improve its training provision and living quarters. This is a great example of how DIO is helping the MOD provide its people with great places to live, work, learn and train.
I look forward to welcoming additional military personnel and their families to the camp in 2021.
