Cambuslang set for £35m fire training centre

Jul 1 2009 by Kenny Smith, Rutherglen Reformer

IT’S BEEN needed since 1975, but now Cambuslang is to be home to the new £35 million Strathclyde Fire and Rescue training centre.

Chief officer Brian Sweeney, speaking exclusively to the Rutherglen Reformer, says the 40-acre greenfield site at the Clydesmill Industrial Estate will mean his firefighters are the best trained in Britain.

He was speaking as Strathclyde Fire and Rescue put the finishing touches to their Reserved Matters application, which is set to be submitted to South Lanarkshire Council later this month.

They held a public consultation event last Thursday, June 25, at the Cambuslang Training and Enterprise Centre, giving local residents their chance to view the proposals, provide comments and ask any questions of the project design team.

Strathclyde, the second-largest fire and rescue operation in the UK, currently has a training centre at a cramped four-acre site in Cowcaddens.

But this was no purpose-built facility, as the service inherited in 1986 from the Glasgow Salvage Corps, and only offers training in dealing with fires.

Cowcaddens also has to house an operational fire station, as well as vehicle workshops. Other training is offered at the service's Hamilton HQ.

However, the new base at Cambuslang will bring all the training together on one site, including a 5000sq m, two-storey academic building with classrooms, lecture rooms, an auditorium and incident management training rooms.

There will also be a separate training village, featuring shops, houses, flats, a section of motorway and another section of railway.

Mr Sweeney, who was based at Cambuslang fire station during his firefighting career, said: “This is a huge investment. Never before have we had the opportunity to work with a blank canvas and design, from scratch, a state-of-the-art facility, which is environmentally friendly, and have a real training village.

“It’s a big site with a huge infrastructure, as £35 million is a massive investment for this area, and will generate all sorts of facilities we hope the Cambuslang community can use, such as leisure facilities, and be a real jewel in the crown for this area.

“It should all be underway in less than 12 months, and already we have machines in place clearing the land of fences.

“It’s a good time to be building as there’s a lot of construction activity that’s stopped and we can take advantage to get good competitive prices from construction companies.

“The Scottish Government have been very keen to take forward major public sector projects to keep our economy ticking over and have released millions of pounds in grants, which has been essential, for what is very much a partnership between the Scottish Government and Strathclyde Fire and Rescue.

“There’s been a lot of politics involved, dealing with the Scottish Government, 12 local councils, and mainly South Lanarkshire Council, who have been supporting us hugely with planning - it’s really exciting.

“It’s not that often someone building a completely new village within an existing community, which makes this even more special.

“The new Cambuslang fire station is part of the overall design of the village and will be incorporated within that. That will be over £5 million on just the station itself.”

Examining other facilities throughout Europe has been an integral part of creating the new Cambuslang training centre.

Brian said: “We will have people coming here from American and Japan just to see this facility.

“In terms of comparison, there’s very little to compare this to, although in Holland there’s one in Dordrecht with railway lines and motorways, but it is only a quarter the size of this one. There really is nothing like this in Europe.

“We’re going to have motorway tunnels, railway lines, offices, shops, road traffic collisions... there’s a lot more to the service we provide than just fires. When you look at it, most of the facilities will have very little to do with fires.

“I remember when I was doing my own training 30 years ago, and doing 16 weeks of training on fire, but now it’s more like eight weeks on fire and eight on everything else - there’s a lot more to the job that just fires.

“I’ve seen purpose-built centres in Hamburg, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and this is right up there with the best of them.”

While some members of the community may have reservations about the creation of the facility, Mr Sweeney was quick to try and allay their concerns.

He added: “I’m sure the local community would rather have a new fire and rescue training centre on this site than a horrible to look at power station. I’m sure when they see the finished centre, they will change their minds if they have any doubts.

“Our firefighters will be trained to the highest possible standards in the best possible facilities, and will arguably be among the best trained crews in the world.

“There will also be people coming into the Cambuslang area from all over Strathclyde, as we have 400 staff from as far afield as Oban and Campbeltown.

“This facility will be running seven days a week, from early in the morning and continuing with night time training - but nothing that will cause noise nuisance to our neighbours.

“The other good things is that, despite worries that this will damage the environment, it’s quite the opposite, as none of that is going to happen.

“There will be no smoke, it is going to be clean-burn LPG, and SEPA (the Scottish Environment Protection Agency) are more than happy at what we’re doing, and are more than happy to put their name to support this.“