PriDE manages Defence Estates’ South East Regional Prime Contract (SE RPC). Valued at around £380m, the SE RPC is one of five regional prime contracts currently in place in the UK.

April 2009

PriDE delivers new Defence Food Services School

PriDE delivers new Defence Food Services School

The MOD’s Regional Prime Contractor for the South East, PriDE, in collaboration with Defence Estates, has delivered a new home for the Defence Food Services School at Worthy Down, near Winchester. 

The project, worth £21.9M, was delivered on time and within budget by the team. It involved the refit of an office building that once housed the Armed Forces Pay & Personnel Administration computer centre into a facility for the Defence Food Services School (DFSS). DFSS trains the personnel that provide catering support to troops on operations, in the field and in barracks.

The new facility provides 12 Kitchen Classrooms, each with facilities for 12 students plus their instructors and 2 Realistic Working Environment Kitchens linked to formal dining rooms, as well as offices, classrooms, stores, cold storage and a field training area.

The project incorporated a number of innovative ideas and used cutting edge technology, to reduce the school’s impact on the environment and speed up construction. Achieving the project’s handover date was critical in order to avoid knock-on delay to the redevelopment of the school’s previous home of nearly 70 years at St Omer Barracks, Aldershot.  It was also vital that the school minimised the disruption to training during the relocation process. 

The project owes its success to the genuinely collaborative approach adopted by the entire project team.

Stuart Adamson, Defence Estates Operations South (Projects) Project Manager, explained:

“Defence Estates has had to engineer the requirement to suit the maximum potential of the building which encompassed numerous challenges. Collaborative working and considerable innovation from all parties involved led to the success of this project.”

 

Hugh Burgess, PriDE’s Project Coordinator, added:

“It is not so much what we did, but the way we did it that ensured the success of the project.  This approach enabled quick, effective decision making and the rapid resolution of technical issues during what was a remarkably short construction period.” 

One of the most striking features of the project is the installation of one of the largest food waste composting systems in Europe; thereby saving on landfill charges.  An innovative kitchen ventilation system incorporating heat recovery and UV air treatment, and installation of low energy lighting throughout the building, are also designed to save running and maintenance costs.  PriDE, as Regional Prime Contractor, is also responsible for facilities management on site and so ease of maintenance was an important consideration in the solution.

The project has also provided a field training area, where students learn to cook under canvas using the operational field catering system and improvising field kitchens from equipment that would be found in a deployed location.

Jeremy Parker, the Army’s Requirements Manager for the project, said:

“This project has been quite remarkable, not only for the tremendous team spirit shown by all involved, but also for their real commitment to delivering a high quality facility against a very tight deadline and within budget.  The project clearly demonstrated the benefits of relationships built on trust and also re-affirms the MOD’s commitment to Worthy Down and opens a new chapter in the life of the establishment.”