Desertcreat college: Police, fire and prison training facility plan radically redrawn

A planned state-of-the-art joint training college for Northern Ireland's police, fire and prison services has been radically redrawn.

The new plan is for training to be split across three different sites.

There would be some joint training, but the three services would each have their own facilities.

The big winner would be the fire and rescue service - it would get a £44m purpose-built complex at Desertcreat, near Cookstown in County Tyrone.

Timeline: Ten years of stop and start for NI's public services college

The BBC revealed in March that a programme board in charge of the Desertcreat project had concluded it was no longer economically viable.

It said the joint college as originally planned was no longer needed because of reduction in the number of training days required by each of the three services.

Refurbish

The Office of First and deputy First Minister then asked for a revised business case, setting out preferred options for future training needs.

That review has now been completed and the BBC has obtained a copy of a draft report setting out the board's recommendations.

The site for the college near Cookstown was purchased more than 10 years ago

It says the preferred option is for the fire service to have a training facility at Desertcreat at an estimated cost of £44m.

If the plan is approved by the Northern Ireland Executive, it is understood the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) would also be allocated about £20m to refurbish its existing training facilities at Garnerville police station in east Belfast.

The Northern Ireland Prison Service would be given funding for training at Maghaberry and Magilligan prisons as its training centre in Millisle, County Down, has been closed.

The proposed new complex for the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) would be built on the site bought 10 years ago for a new policing college at Desertcreat.

Realistic

That plan was later changed to include the fire and prison services, but has now been revised.

It would include what is called a 'hot house'.

This is a building that can be set on fire in a controlled fashion, or heated to extremely high temperatures, to give firefighters realistic training.

Northern Ireland does not currently have such a facility.

The NIFRS would like it to have different sections to replicate the different conditions and challenges involved when tackling a blaze in domestic homes, commercial premises and high-rise buildings.

The college plan includes a 'hot house' training facility for the fire service

The money for all of the training facilities would have to be provided by the executive.

Involved

That is because a £53m funding package from the Treasury was withdrawn earlier this year due to a failure to build the proposed joint college within a stipulated timeframe.

The programme board's report will be sent to Justice Minister David Ford and Health Minister Simon Hamilton for their approval as their departments are responsible for the project.

In a statement to the BBC, a project steering group said the draft business case "has yet to be finalised or formally signed-off" by the accounting officers for the fire and prison services and the PSNI.

But senior officials from the departments of justice and health sit on the programme board and were heavily involved in producing the draft report.

If Mr Ford and Mr Hamilton endorse the preferred option, they will make a joint recommendation to the executive by the end of November.