Bruntingthorpe Newsletter December 2015

BRUNTINGTHORPE PROVING GROUND

NEWSLETTER

December 2015

This Newsletter is the fifth of our new quarterly Newsletters intended as a means of keeping local residents abreast of useful information, particularly information that local residents might find of interest regarding the operation of the proving ground. The intention is to provide regular updates on information that might be of general interest with regards to items such as the operation of the site, or for example, items such as forthcoming events. We do hope you enjoy the read!

NEW R&D AND DESIGN CENTRE

Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground is delighted to be able to announce that the world famous Royal Enfield motorcycle company have agreed to set up a new R&D and Design Centre at the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground. This is a major coup for the site and will see Royal Enfield build a state-of-the-art new engineering centre where they will be designing and conducting all of the R&D associated with their new global motorcycle programmes. There will be approx. 70 jobs created and Royal Enfield are already well on with the recruitment of these staff as they have already recruited over 20 engineers who are based in their temporary offices in Leicester.

The new centre will include a design studio, prototype build workshops, an engine testing cell and engineering offices.

Planning permission has been approved and construction of the new centre will commence in February with a view to being opened by October of 2016.

Leicestershire is rapidly becoming the centre of European motorcycle design and engineering with both Triumph and Norton motorcycles already being designed in the county. Adding Royal Enfield to this company will only strengthen the reputation for the area.

Royal Enfield’s heritage lies in the UK and they were established in 1891, and continued in the UK through to 1970. Construction of the motorbikes had also been occurring in India since the 1950’s and this continued following the demise of the UK operation.

Royal Enfield currently employ over 6,000 people globally and already produce 9-10 times more motorcycles per year than Triumph currently sell!

Royal Enfield are keen to move to the site so that they can benefit from the site’s good infrastructure including the excellent security arrangements as well as being able to gain easy access to our test tracks.

We are full of anticipation as to what the future with Royal Enfield will bring to all parties. Exciting times!

Bruntingthorpe Newsletter December 2015

New Body Repair Centre

Bruntingthorpe has recently completed the construction of a new, additional body repair centre intended predominantly for repair of vans and trucks. This has been built to replace an existing truck bodyshop which will now be utilised to provide the much needed extra capacity we need to service all of our car repair demands. We will soon be at a point where we are repairing 1000 vehicles per week so the extra repair capacity is now needed to help us achieve this level.

The new truck body repair centre

Resident open evenings

We would like to apologise for those expecting to have seen adverts in the Swift Flash regarding an open evening in September. Busy work commitments and then the dark evenings drawing in, meant that this was not possible. For those disappointed not to been able to attend, we will be running an evening in Spring 2016 so look out for the adverts then for confirmation of the date.

Recent exhibition

Bruntingthorpe recently exhibited at the LBE15 event (Leicester Business Event 2015) at the Leicester Tigers ground. The exhibition is intended to promote local companies to Leicester based businesses. This was the first time we had exhibited at this particular event and it was a great success in increasing our exposure to local companies who might want to use us. We were actively promoting our Hangar ’42 events centre and our Big Thunder corporate hospitality and team building services.

Talking to customers on the LBE15 stand

Construction updates

We have now started the extension to the new Hangar ’42 events centre. The extension was approved as part of the original planning permission but we have not been able to start until recently. This extension is intended to house the permanent kitchen as well as two toilet blocks. Once finished, the building will be complete with all of the facilities installed that we had originally planned.

For those of you who will remember the Peugeot dealership in Lutterworth, we now own this building and have continued to erect it onto our site. The building programme has taken a little longer than we had originally intended due to other business demands, but we have now commenced with the glass and wall installation as you can see from the photograph below. We hope to have this complete by Spring 2016.

The glass and walls are now visible in the new building

Bruntingthorpe Newsletter December 2015

Hangar ’42 Opening

The official opening of the Hangar ’42 Events Centre was held in October and the formal opening was performed by Councillor Blake Pain, Leader of Harborough District Council and Leicestershire County Council cabinet member with responsibility for tourism and economic development. He predicted that Hangar ’42 would be a huge success. “Until now we’ve had nothing like it in Harborough district. It is going to be a huge success.” He congratulated C Walton Ltd., owners of Bruntingthorpe Airfield and Proving Ground, on the investment to preserve an historic building while turning it into an ultra-modern facility that would bring significant business to the region.

Bruntingthorpe’s Dave Walton with Cllr Pain

Air Ambulance Support

Collections at the popular Cold War Jets taxi days held every May and August at the Airfield are helping to keep two Midlands-based air ambulances flying.

Volunteers from the Warwickshire & Northampton and Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance are invited to attend the special days when some of the impressive Cold War Jets Collection make high-speed taxi runs along the 2-mile-long Bruntingthorpe runway. Visitors to the displays give generously and the pennies and small-change soon adds up. Approaching £3,000 has been raised at the three most recent events.

English Electric Lightning

Bruntingthorpe is home to the Lightning Preservation Group, a group of enthusiasts who own and maintain 2 English Electric Lightning jet aircraft. This collection of aircraft has now increased by 50% with the addition of a third aircraft, XR713 which will act as a static display for the Group.

The aircraft arrived in parts during the summer and a number of apprentices from BAE Systems then subsequently reassembled the aircraft over the course of a few weeks.

The apprentices did a fantastic job and learnt many new skills and had the opportunity to exercise skillsets learnt as part of their training at the academy. Their efforts resulted in the final completion of the rebuild of this classic aircraft, providing an exhibit that will be enjoyed by many and filling an important gap in telling the story of the Lightning.

XR713 after reassembly

Falconry

Bruntingthorpe have been offering corporate hospitality and team building services for many years via its Big Thunder arm. There is a demand to continually improve this service and offer an increased diversity of activities for groups to choose from. We have reported in previous Newsletters that we have been investing in new vehicles to support the Big Thunder events but we are always on the look-out for other new and interesting activities we can offer. This is backed up with the recent addition of Falconry which we can now offer on site as part of a Big Thunder event. Please note that we cannot offer this as

Bruntingthorpe Newsletter December 2015

a stand-alone activity or experience but if you are looking for a different activity as part of a larger event, then this might be for you!

You looking at me?

Upcoming Events

Normally we would report at this point on any large events might be of interest to local residents. Due to the time of year, there are very few to mention however it is worth noting that Boden Clothes will be having a clothes sale in Hangar ’42 once more. This is open to all local residents who may wish to purchase various ladies, gents or children’s clothing in Boden’s end of season sale. There will be plenty of bargains! Sale dates for your diaries are March 9 (10am-7pm) & 10th (10-4pm) 2016.

Please note that currently there are no large aircraft landings planned in the near future, however these are subject to change.

Solar Car Press Launch Durham University recently entered a solar powered car into the World Solar Challenge, a 3000km marathon solar race across Australia. Durham were just one of 43 teams from 21 countries participating in this year’s event, and they held a UK press launch at the Proving Ground on the day before it was dispatched to Australia. You can see a little of this on the following BBC link including a link of the vehicle driving around our test tracks: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-34477299

The car travelling across Australia

Contact details

We do hope that you’ve enjoyed this short insight into the site’s operation and that some of the items have proven to be of interest. If there is anything that you would like to see us report back on in future Newsletters, then please do get in touch and let us know:

Email: Paul.atkin@bruntingthorpe.com Tel: 0116 279 9329