MOD Police get new home as first trainees arrive
The Ministry of Defence Police have been handed a new southern headquarters named after a D-day air commander.
MOD Police (MDP) joined other forces in being trained at Southwick Park, near Fareham, last year, and have now welcomed their first course of trainees.
Project Jute saw the MDP relocate its headquarters from RAF Wethersfield to RAF Wyton in 2022.
This was then divided into northern and southern locations - Coulport in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, and Southwick. Superintendent James Higgins, head of operational capability centre for MDP, said the force have seen many benefits from the move to the Defence School of Policing and Guarding.
He said: “Relocating our training to Southwick Park from our own dedicated site was initially daunting however any concerns were quickly allayed thanks to the Southwick Park commandant and his team who welcomed us. The block provides our recruits with everything they need while staying away from home, and having received such an investment in our training has helped us to transition into our new home, rather than feel like lodgers in someone else’s’ space.”
The £5.5m project was delivered by the Mod’s Defence Estate Optimisation (DEO) Portfolio.
The government body said £5.1bn has been invested into infrastructure which military personnel use to live and train.
Work took place to renovate the dormitory accommodation block which was originally built in the 1960s into 96 en-suite single rooms.
The three-floor block, is named the Leigh Mallory Building, after Air Chief Marshall Sir Tafford Leighmallory - an air commander involved in the Allied Invasion of Normandy. on June 6, 1944 – D-day.
The block provides our recruits with everything they need