£86-million storage facility the size of 12 football pitches, or 75,000-metre-squared, is being built in Longtown, Cumbria.

The £86m contract with Glasgow-based construction and civil engineering company McLaughlin & Harvey will strengthen industrial activity across the UK, supporting approximately 150 high-quality, skilled jobs in Scotland and a further 300 in the North of England, growing the economy across both sides of the border, say the Ministry of Defence.

“Due to complete in early October 2024, the new facility will be a key asset in supporting the armed forces on operations. The facility will provide safe and secure storage for equipment used by all three services such as engines and other large spare parts in the defence inventory.

Known as the MOD Distribution Centre (North), the Longtown facility will be the size of 12 football pitches and be built on a brownfield site within the Longtown estate. The build will provide greater resilience for UK Defence by enhancing MOD’s existing strategic warehouse sites in both Shropshire and Oxfordshire and will also allow older warehousing to be retired.”

John Farrow, DE&S Director Logistics and Support Operating Centre, said:

“The new warehouse will provide the UK with additional modern storage facilities, building on the success of similar facilities in Donnington, that will ensure assets are available more rapidly to meet surges in demand. This contract represents a fantastic example of the progress we have made in developing and implementing fit-for-purpose facilities that is helping to accelerate our mission of equipping and supporting our UK armed forces today and tomorrow.”

Minister for Defence Procurement, James Cartlidge, said:

 “I am delighted that work is being done at DM Longtown by McLaughlin and Harvey. Longtown is a hugely important, strategic facility and contributes much to the operational capability of Defence. This work also highlights the number of people at the facility who work cross-border and that Defence is a pan-UK business, involving contractors from right across the UK, to keep its people and allies safe.”

Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, said:

 “I welcome this multi-million-pound UK Government defence investment and the hundreds of jobs it will support in Scotland and Cumbria. This giant facility will help ensure kit used by our armed forces is stored in the best possible condition and can be deployed speedily. The Ministry of Defence invests more than £2 billion annually with industry and commerce in Scotland and this project is another great example of how such expenditure is growing the economy and creating better-paid jobs and opportunity right across the country.”

The facility reaches completion in late 2024.

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George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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Dern
Dern (@guest_765365)
10 months ago

But, they’ve not said how many London Buses can fit inside! How will I be able to visualise it!

Steve
Steve (@guest_765366)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

Or like the carrier’s how many sausages and tins of baked beans ? You’re right without this I can only imagine it’s roughly the size of a large potting shed.

Jonathan
Jonathan (@guest_765371)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

I think they will be using the sausages and beans measuring system for this one.

Dern
Dern (@guest_765433)
10 months ago
Reply to  Jonathan

“The facility could store enough Sausages and Beans to feed a London Nando’s for 130years.”

Jonathan
Jonathan (@guest_765446)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

That’s a serious facility..at least we know the defence of the nation will not be compromised due to a lack of sausage and beans….like you I’m still worried about the London bus situation though.

Last edited 10 months ago by Jonathan
Mr Bell
Mr Bell (@guest_765501)
10 months ago
Reply to  Jonathan

But how many eggs can it store or pints of milk or tins of beans?
Those are the kinds of things used previously.
Or lengths of London buses.

Spyinthesky
Spyinthesky (@guest_765399)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

Are you visualising the London buses coming out of it in their hundreds ready to drive the troops to the next war front.

Andrew
Andrew (@guest_765492)
10 months ago
Reply to  Spyinthesky

London busses are battery powered now…. The troops won’t get very far!

David
David (@guest_765505)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

sausages < double decker buses < football pitches < Belgiums

Dern
Dern (@guest_765535)
10 months ago
Reply to  David

The true Imperial system. If I can’t measure the world in terms of a country invented so that Britain, Germany, and France had an arena in which to settle their differences, I don’t want to live in it.

Peter Boyle
Peter Boyle (@guest_771102)
9 months ago
Reply to  Dern

Not have they said how many countries the size of Wales could fit inside the building!

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765382)
10 months ago

Interesting. AFAIK Longtown and it’s satellite site at Eastriggs had only been used for munitions storage previously.
Longtown is a huge site with its own railway network, and link to the WCML, so a site of strategic importance that needs investment.

Supportive Bloke
Supportive Bloke (@guest_765390)
10 months ago

This has got to be a BW, spend to save, project.

I can see how a decent warehouse would be

– not that expensive to build; and
– cheaper to run; and
– pleasanter to work in; and
– better at keeping kit stored properly; and
– generally more efficient; and
– better fire suppression etc

George
George (@guest_765877)
10 months ago

It’s called consolidation. Or placing all of ones eggs in one basket so the enemy can destroy almost everything with one strike. Peacetime thinking like this could be our downfall.

Tom
Tom (@guest_766335)
10 months ago

Maybe the inside of the warehouse will be ‘kitted out’ like an Amazon warehouse? Robots picking, robots moving stock around, and a few humans to pack the smaller stuff?

Spyinthesky
Spyinthesky (@guest_765401)
10 months ago

…and air defence perhaps.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765406)
10 months ago
Reply to  Spyinthesky

Well yes, there are several. All with no AD whatsoever.

Crabfat
Crabfat (@guest_765416)
10 months ago

Many years ago I worked in an underground facility in Wiltshire. Go through a door and a short tunnel and you were in a wartime ammunition depot. Still in good nick, with a train station (and a turntable for the engine), barrack rooms, medical area, etc. And racks upon racks, tier upon tier, of shelving; enough to store thousands of shells and other items. You could shine a torch and you couldn’t see the end of the racks. Trains would come in off the main line and stop deep inside the tunnel, where bods would unload the ammo and, somehow,… Read more »

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765418)
10 months ago
Reply to  Crabfat

It does. I’ve stood at that very door you mention. That area is abandoned, and much of the wider UG is C&M as you say.

There are several other organisations at
the wider surface facility, over 3 sites, that are v much active. Indeed, it’s one of the most vital sites in the country.
One part of the underground, district 9 I recall, is sealed off from other areas and still in use for a particular function.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765471)
10 months ago

Correcting my post. I’ve stood at A door, probably not the one you refer to. The one I had in mind is next to the tunnel entrance off the railway, and has a sign “Key with MDP**********:

Steve
Steve (@guest_765494)
10 months ago

Back in the 1970s, Peter Laurie’s book “Beneath the City Streets” was a fascinating investigation into the UK’s nuclear war resilience, including certain facilities in the West alluded to here. If I remember right, he came to the conclusion that the resulting ‘hardened’ government was likely to be more useful in the case of widespread civil unrest than in a nuclear war, which would pretty much wipe us out. No doubt that’s why we still have such limited national air defence capabilities.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765526)
10 months ago
Reply to  Steve

Read it cover to cover numerous times. After it came War Plan UK by Duncan Campbell, another good one. I’m still looking for Lauries reference to the “best protected spot” west of London where the treasures were kept. I don’t think that was Corsham. That area, though vast, is in quarries barely 100 foot below ground. CGWHQ was in Spring Quarry, CDCN in Brown’s Quarry. All vulnerable to a direct hit. Hardly Cheyenne Mountain or Mt Weather. Just converted WW2 arms factories. As you say, despite the fact tens of thousands were to be evacuated there, vulnerable. Dispersal is a… Read more »

jjsmallpiece
jjsmallpiece (@guest_765419)
10 months ago
Reply to  Crabfat

Chilmark

Crabfat
Crabfat (@guest_765422)
10 months ago
Reply to  jjsmallpiece

Nope!

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765466)
10 months ago
Reply to  jjsmallpiece

RAF Chilmark had the railway access and various sub surface and surface bunkers, as well as a RSG nearby. But AFAIK not the type of underground workings Crabfat has in mind.
Part of it is now used in another security capacity.

Levi Goldsteinberg
Levi Goldsteinberg (@guest_765728)
10 months ago
Reply to  Crabfat

Is that West Dean? If so, I live almost on top of that site!

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_766654)
10 months ago

Nope. West Dean was another DM – Defence Munitions, Site. Again recall it had railway access and as usual for ammunition facilities the semi sunken bunkers for storage built into the surrounding hills.

The place Crabfat has in mind, you only see the occasional air vent to give away that an UG facility is beneath.

Dern
Dern (@guest_765434)
10 months ago

Get the local Farmers out with their shotguns. If you can shoot a clay you can shoot a Lancet. 😀

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765469)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

Ha, yes. Though do they even have the range? Unless ships or on the ground teams can launch them.

Never mind storage facilities, there are hundreds of installations to choose from, and you can not cover them all.

Would be interesting to write up a priority list. Would be even more interesting to see the MoD doc listing the UKs KPs.

Dern
Dern (@guest_765498)
10 months ago

The Farmers or the Lancets?

I’d say port’s and the channel tunnel would be high priority targets for sure.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765500)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

😆

Toby J
Toby J (@guest_765509)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

Not sure how you’d destroy the Tunnel. Presumably being an undersea tunnel means both ends are quite solidly built? You’d need some real heft to put either end out of action

Dern
Dern (@guest_765540)
10 months ago
Reply to  Toby J

It’s about 6km from the tunnel entrance to the sea on the UK side, and over the course of it’s entire length it only drops about 115 meters below sea level, I think by the time the channel tunnel hits sea level it’s about 50ish meters below the ground. Anyway, point being, the tunnel isn’t that deep for quite a ways. It’s also a fixed, immobile, high traffic location, with proven military applicability and a major logistics hub (look at it on Google Maps, it’s massive) It’s a chonky structure, but not hardened against bunker busting munitions, a GBU-28 or… Read more »

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765561)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

I’d say it’s a given that portal is one of the first things that go bang.

Dern
Dern (@guest_765569)
10 months ago

Yarp.

Mark F
Mark F (@guest_765579)
10 months ago
Reply to  Toby J

Toby J, who’s to say that charges were not included in its build by a private company as a precaution !
Won’t be the first time the powers that be have covered the own backside😉

David Barry
David Barry (@guest_765552)
10 months ago

Hi Daniele, having called out Michelle Scrogham for not having a scoobies about Defence – prospective MP for Furness – I’ve been kicked out of the Labour Party.

I did try.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765560)
10 months ago
Reply to  David Barry

Blimey!

Dern
Dern (@guest_765568)
10 months ago
Reply to  David Barry

I didn’t even believe you could be kicked out of the labour party! 😮

David Barry
David Barry (@guest_765583)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

Yep. Prospective Labour MP for Barrow in Furness.

Was bullied because she doesn’t understand Defence terminology.

Woke world.

Toby Jones
Toby Jones (@guest_765756)
10 months ago
Reply to  David Barry

Any specifics?
It can’t have been worse than “RAF carriers”, surely?

David Barry
David Barry (@guest_765792)
10 months ago
Reply to  Toby Jones

I asked her how many SSN were tied up alongside. She replied there is always one at sea…

She then said people at the shipyard didn’t understand the difference.

In writing She then denied she had ever said that.

Her prospective constituency: Barrow in Furness and surroundings.

Best known for building?

Mark
Mark (@guest_766948)
10 months ago
Reply to  David Barry

Skateboards ? Food Processors? Oh no wait New Clear submariners?

George
George (@guest_765880)
10 months ago
Reply to  David Barry

Perhaps you were simply not antisemitic enough for that bunch.

Farouk
Farouk (@guest_765518)
10 months ago

It was also used as a vehicle holding depot, as ive had to send troops there to collect vehicles when I was a PSI.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765527)
10 months ago
Reply to  Farouk

Longtown or Corsham?

Farouk
Farouk (@guest_765548)
10 months ago

Longtown.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765555)
10 months ago
Reply to  Farouk

Thought so, Had to check mind.

Farouk
Farouk (@guest_765594)
10 months ago

The nearest vehicle depot for loan vehicles we used near Corsham was Warminster, to the east Thatcham (No longer in use (It was also the adventure training equipment loan store) to the north Catterick as mentioned Longtown and right up north Stirling.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765613)
10 months ago
Reply to  Farouk

Ah yes, with Warminster assume drawn from the LVTF.
I’d heard the Scottish one at Stirling was due to close?

David Barry
David Barry (@guest_765550)
10 months ago

Daniele. It was an RAF site with engines for any RAF aircraft through to socks.

Much was sold off to become a business hub and I’m not sure about WCML connection.

Govt. ineptitude on a huge scale.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765559)
10 months ago
Reply to  David Barry

David, I think you may be thinking of RAF Carlisle, which was 14MU.
Have a look on Google Earth if you get round to it. Longtown has an extensive rail network, akin to Kineton. There are 2 links to the WCML, one which is at “Admiralty Junction” It is v close to the Scottish border, on the “Up” side.

David Barry
David Barry (@guest_765564)
10 months ago

https://www.railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.php

Nope, I think any connections are long gone.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_766011)
10 months ago
Reply to  David Barry

Agreed. Just checked on GE. They were there in 2018.
By 2020, the 2 connections seem to have gone but there are still trains in the yard on the east side on photos dated 27,2,22??? With no track evident around them.

Mark
Mark (@guest_766950)
10 months ago
Reply to  David Barry

No no no David, people 😍 tax cuts.

Simon
Simon (@guest_765584)
10 months ago

Eastriggs isn’t used, although the buildings are there and it is still connected to the main line

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765614)
10 months ago
Reply to  Simon

Is it not now? Thanks.

Simon
Simon (@guest_765802)
10 months ago

There was a news article about a company wanting to store ( or may be use as a depot ) HS2 trains there,. it said buildeing were in good order and line are still connected to the main line ( which Goggle maps confirms )

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765838)
10 months ago
Reply to  Simon

We still have extensive infrastructure.

Pacman27
Pacman27 (@guest_765731)
10 months ago

It used to be far bigger Daniele – MOD sold it off and its now a massive industrial /retail park.

14 MU had loads of hardened units.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765385)
10 months ago

Curious how this compares with the DFC at Donnington.
I understand Stafford also stores stuff alongside the two main sites at Bicester Graven Hill and Donnington.
There are also several smaller sites.

David
David (@guest_765389)
10 months ago

Seeing how logistics hubs are being hammered in Ukraine and Russia by cruise and ballistic missiles, that’s one juicy basket of eggs. We lack GBAD in depth.

GELDER
GELDER (@guest_765393)
10 months ago
Reply to  David

Seems not long ago there was a large storage base at Carlisle MU which i worked at .This was sold off as surplus to requirements as usual short term thinking by MOD

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765528)
10 months ago
Reply to  GELDER

Many were, after the big downsizing after the Cold War.

Mark
Mark (@guest_766952)
10 months ago
Reply to  GELDER

Oh but just think of the tax cuts it enabled.

JamesF
JamesF (@guest_765411)
10 months ago

Although the defence budget has not risen, these types of project signal a change in direction. MOD’s stockpiles and storage capacity had largely fallen to nothing or dereliction. This shows preparation for a future in which defence will be a higher priority. Much of Wallace’s last DCP was focused on these preparations. A good parting shot.

Andrew
Andrew (@guest_765417)
10 months ago

Obviously it’s a good thing for the MoD to invest in logistics. But with many eggs in one basket I worry this will be a very tempting target for any future enemy.

monkey spanker
monkey spanker (@guest_765541)
10 months ago
Reply to  Andrew

Well the army will just have to manage with bacon, sausage, beans and powder eggs until a new supply arrives.
It is a lot of eggs that will fit in there.

Jonno
Jonno (@guest_765432)
10 months ago

This is a disaster waiting to happen. It needs to be dispersed into several widely separate units with some of it underground.
At present its what Putin calls a big target!
Has everyone in MOD lost their heads?

Graham Moore
Graham Moore (@guest_765456)
10 months ago
Reply to  Jonno

Its a sign of the times – a small number of significant sites. We have only got two Typhoon airbases, one RAF AT base, one submarine base, two (major) surface ship naval bases etc. Also defence industry is not especially dispersed.

Perhaps no-one at the top thinks the UK will ever get attacked by missiles or bombs?

DaveyB
DaveyB (@guest_765483)
10 months ago
Reply to  Graham Moore

Hate to be a doom-monger. But it would be so easy to build a or a number of home made RC airplane/s. Fitted with a first person view camera and filled with home made explosives, nails, incendiaries etc. Pretty certain, our Country’s forces would not be capable of a) detecting it and b) shooting it down. There are too many juicy targets that are entirely undefended against such an attack.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765493)
10 months ago
Reply to  DaveyB

The cost of reopening underground sites to mitigate such an attack would be great.
Places such as Mitcheldean and the admiralty tanks at Portsdown spring to mind.

Mr Bell
Mr Bell (@guest_765503)
10 months ago

What was the site about 3-4 miles outside Bath to the east of Bath, close to the river Avon called? It was a huge site with lots of underground storage, then of course there were the really big underground sites in Wiltshire as well. All decommissioned but potentially could be recommissioned if need arose.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765506)
10 months ago
Reply to  Mr Bell

Assume you mean at Corsham. It consisted of Rudloe Manor, Copenacre, Hawthorn Site, HMS Royal Arthur, and Basil Hill Barracks.
Today, it’s simply called MoD Corsham. Further east is Monckton Farliegh.

Dern
Dern (@guest_765563)
10 months ago

Also had a long history of UFO conspiracy theories which are really funny to listen too if you’ve been down there!

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765571)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

I know them well, as that is a field I study. They’re actually not all conspiracies, as Rudloe Manor Site housed RAF P&SS, Provost and Security Services. ( It then moved to Henlow and now is renamed elsewhere.) It is well known P&SS collected UFO reports, the better quality ones of which were forwarded to DI55, and which have never seen the light of day. There are indeed far more outlandish conspiracies concerning Corsham and UFOs, which to me are bogus. The MoD Police knew the bloke publishing them quite well. I only met him the once. He did however… Read more »

Dern
Dern (@guest_765849)
10 months ago

XD Yeah, I’ve done CQB training down in the tunnels a couple times. Had no idea about the UFO conspiracies until afterwards when I heard a podcast about “Rudloe Manor” and it was halfway through that I was like “Oh shit, that’s Corsham.”

Sadly the Podcast was full of things like “Well the UK military has so many bases around Rudloe..it’s suspicious.”

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765856)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

Mathew Williams by any chance? He does the “Secret Vault” vids. He comes out with some outlandish stuff on various places. I used to subscribe and try to put perspective and background knowledge in my comments on his vids, but gave up as the crowd on there were all but ready for revolution and had a very negative view of our military.

Mr Bell
Mr Bell (@guest_765935)
10 months ago

Monckton Farleigh- thats the place, was a massive ammo silo with huge underground storage bays an internal railway and a branch of the mainline that went right upto its door. The UK has loads of these facilities dotted around- mostly near Bath and Wiltshire where the sand and limestone was easy to excavate and shape into huge caverns.

David Barry
David Barry (@guest_765554)
10 months ago
Reply to  Graham Moore

Look, take your cocoa and go back to sleep.

No one in authority needs your sage advice.

Dern
Dern (@guest_765565)
10 months ago
Reply to  Graham Moore

TBF I think there is a general view at the top that the UK will not be under missile or bomb attack, the general concern seems to be more about bridges and railways across rivers in europe being Kinzaled than anything as far back as the UK being hit.

It’s not entirely unreasonable, the further east the more each blown bridge and bit of infra will be an alliance wide loss, rather than a purely national British one, still, one hell of an assumption to make isn’t it?

Graham Moore
Graham Moore (@guest_765623)
10 months ago
Reply to  Dern

KInzaled? Thats a new one on me. I think our Government is just content that the RAF protects UK airspace and cannot conceive of a missile attack ie that a war of national survival/WW3 is unlikely – it also accounts for why Cold War bunkers have been largely sold off and UKWMO/ROC was disbanded, very soon after 1991, end of Cold war. Even the big two (US and Russia) have limited ballistic missile defence due probably to a percption that such attack is unlikely and the cost of providing such defences. Israel has a different view on missile attack, obvs… Read more »

Dern
Dern (@guest_765850)
10 months ago
Reply to  Graham Moore

Kinzahl is an upgraded airlaunched version of the Russian Iskander missile. 🙂

Yes savings, but also I think everyone “knows” that a) We’re not really in a place to survive a nuclear strike if we get hit and b) there’s a lot of europe to get through before either us or the US are going to be a prime target for conventional weapons.

Mr Bell
Mr Bell (@guest_765937)
10 months ago
Reply to  Graham Moore

Ah the much vaulted Kinzal hypersonic ballistic missile, accuracy measured in multiple miles. I think unless you have a warehouse the size of the picture above the Kinzal is likely to miss by a mile or 2. I don’t think short of a lucky shot its going to be able to accurately target bridges. Just look at all the missiles Russia has fired off into Ukraine. They still haven’t crippled Ukraine’s power grid or energy infrastructure despite a very desperate attempt last winter to do just that.

Graham Moore
Graham Moore (@guest_766177)
10 months ago
Reply to  Mr Bell

Thanks. But if Russia is aiming for a city or a troop concentration, then it doesn’t matter if the accuracy is not pin sharp. They will use something else to take out a bridge.

Mark
Mark (@guest_766955)
10 months ago
Reply to  Jonno

Not lost them, no. Thise heads were sold off as part of the Conservative Party programme ” fit for occupation ” paid for by their Russian donors.

Bloke D
Bloke D (@guest_765467)
10 months ago

It appears to be like a land-based aircraft carrier but without the AD/AS protection.

Btw, I understood MCLH were based in Norn Irn. At least they were when I had dealings with them and the blokes used to go back there at weekends.

Tom
Tom (@guest_765517)
10 months ago

That’s a big whopping great ‘warehouse’. I wonder what it will be used for…

monkey spanker
monkey spanker (@guest_765542)
10 months ago
Reply to  Tom

Giant football tournaments that require 12 pitches I assume.

Tom
Tom (@guest_765755)
10 months ago
Reply to  monkey spanker

I never thunk of that. 😂

Graham Moore
Graham Moore (@guest_765530)
10 months ago

The building will be ready in less than a year. Good to know that some improvements can happen quickly in Defence.

David Barry
David Barry (@guest_765546)
10 months ago

F ing Hell, I used to practise defending 14 MU… which they tore down and sold off.

Now, they are building…?

Defence needs taking out of Government hands. It’s not a toy and needs a solid budget.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765567)
10 months ago
Reply to  David Barry

Different site, David. This is at DM, Defence Munitions, Longtown.

Kineton, Crombie, Glen Douglas, Beith, Coulport, Ernsettle, Gosport are the others in the DM estate, with some smaller places.

This factory is more akin to the kit stored at Stafford, Bicester, and Donnington.

pete
pete (@guest_765556)
10 months ago

Building it on Salisbury plain would have reduced transport costs !

Graham Moore
Graham Moore (@guest_765572)
10 months ago
Reply to  pete

Not all of the three armed forces is based in and around Salisbury Plain.

pete
pete (@guest_766044)
10 months ago
Reply to  Graham Moore

No commercial company would stand the cost of shipping stuff long distances away from customers !

Graham Moore
Graham Moore (@guest_766404)
10 months ago
Reply to  pete

But the MoD customers are all over the country. Do you suggest that MoD should have a huge number of warehouse locations?

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_765573)
10 months ago
Reply to  pete

Yes, they could have used land at Lugdershall, for example. There are very few military units and installations in the Longtown part of the country. But it is good to spread sites around.

Graham Moore
Graham Moore (@guest_765641)
10 months ago

I thought MoD would have sold of the entirety of the Ludgershall site years ago. Seems like they built 246 Forces Quarters (for army) there back around 2015 or so:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/work-starts-to-prepare-ludgershall-site-for-new-army-homes

Not sure if any surplus MoD land remains there.

Giant MoD warehouses don’t have to be that near to a particular concentration of military units, as they will not uniquely serve that community.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli (@guest_766006)
10 months ago
Reply to  Graham Moore

Indeed.
We looked into this subject months ago didn’t we. They have kept the sidings, loading bays and access gates at Ludgershall.

Andrew Munro
Andrew Munro (@guest_765645)
10 months ago

ALL ONES EGGS IN ONE BASKET, ALL IT NEEDS IS 3 X WARHEADS AND WE ARE BUG___D.

Louis
Louis (@guest_765770)
10 months ago
Reply to  Andrew Munro

It is not the only facility.

Mr Bell
Mr Bell (@guest_765938)
10 months ago
Reply to  Andrew Munro

Nagh the Cumbrian hill farmers would rush to the site to defend it, they are armed with 12 bore shotguns and usually highly accurate as long as they haven’t just done the Friday evening quiz night in the local pub. Id think a dozen Cumbrian farmers equals one phalanx system or that sort of 20:1 ratio.

Glenn
Glenn (@guest_771083)
9 months ago

76 000 square metres! “76 000 metres-squared” would be over 2000 square miles. Why are Brits still unable to deal with metric?