QUARANTINE TENTS GO UP AT TRAINING CAMP
Isolation provision for up to 150 military personnel
TENTS to provide isolation space for up to 150 people have been installed at an Army training camp. They are being used to quarantine military personnel before and after operations.
The Secretary of State for Defence is behind the plans at Swynnerton Training Camp, as well as change of use of the land to allow overnight accommodation.
The tents are required for at least six months but they could be needed for up to 18 months.
The statement said: “The quarantine facility is required to isolate military personnel in advance of deployment and upon return from operations as a consequence of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“To accommodate this need, the site requires the establishment of 150 additional temporary bed spaces for military personnel along with enough ablutions to support the additional head count.
“Whilst there is an immediate need for this facility over the next six months, the quarantine facility could be required on site for as long as 18 months.
“There will be a requirement for a total of five temporary tents on site with each housing 30 cubicle single bed spaces.”
The Swynnerton site at Cold Meece, near Yarnfield, is more than 100 metres from the nearest houses. A munitions factory was located there during the Second World War and in the following few years, but the site has more recently been used as a training camp for the British Army.
The tents are being installed in the grounds of existing camp buildings and they will be in keeping with the single storey scale of other structures on the site, the statement said.