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 Planning permission has been approved and construction of the new centre will Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground is delighted to commence in February with a view to being be able to announce that the world famous opened by October of 2016. Royal Enfield motorcycle company have agreed to set up a new R&D and Design is rapidly becoming the centre Centre at the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground. of European motorcycle design and This is a major coup for the site and will see engineering with both Triumph and Norton Royal Enfield build a state-of-the-art new motorcycles already being designed in the engineering centre where they will be county. Adding Royal Enfield to this company designing and conducting all of the R&D will only strengthen the reputation for the associated with their new global motorcycle area. programmes. There will be approx. 70 jobs created and Royal Enfield are already well on Royal Enfield’s heritage lies in the UK and they with the recruitment of these staff as they were established in 1891, and continued in have already recruited over 20 engineers who the UK through to 1970. Construction of the are based in their temporary offices in motorbikes had also been occurring in India Leicester. since the 1950’s and this continued following the demise of the UK operation. The new centre will include a design studio, prototype build workshops, an engine testing Royal Enfield currently employ over 6,000 cell and engineering offices. 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.

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 The new truck body repair centre be complete with all of the facilities installed that we had originally planned. Resident open evenings For those of you who will remember the We would like to apologise for those Peugeot dealership in , we now expecting to have seen adverts in the Swift own this building and have continued to erect Flash regarding an open evening in it onto our site. The building programme has September. Busy work commitments and then taken a little longer than we had originally the dark evenings drawing in, meant that this intended due to other business demands, but was not possible. For those disappointed not we have now commenced with the glass and to been able to attend, we will be running an wall installation as you can see from the evening in Spring 2016 so look out for the photograph below. We hope to have this adverts then for confirmation of the date. complete by Spring 2016.

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 The glass and walls are now visible in the new building services.

Bruntingthorpe Newsletter December 2015 Hangar ’42 Opening English Electric Lightning

The official opening of the Hangar ’42 Events Bruntingthorpe is home to the Lightning Centre was held in October and the formal Preservation Group, a group of enthusiasts opening was performed by Councillor Blake who own and maintain 2 English Electric Pain, Leader of Council Lightning jet aircraft. This collection of aircraft and Leicestershire County Council cabinet has now increased by 50% with the addition member with responsibility for tourism and of a third aircraft, XR713 which will act as a economic development. He predicted that static display for the Group. Hangar ’42 would be a huge success. “Until now we’ve had nothing like it in Harborough The aircraft arrived in parts during the district. It is going to be a huge success.” summer and a number of apprentices from BAE Systems then subsequently reassembled He congratulated C Walton Ltd., owners of the aircraft over the course of a few weeks. Bruntingthorpe Airfield and Proving Ground, The apprentices did a fantastic job and learnt on the investment to preserve an historic many new skills and had the opportunity to building while turning it into an ultra-modern exercise skillsets learnt as part of their facility that would bring significant business to training at the academy. Their efforts resulted the region. 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.

Bruntingthorpe’s Dave Walton with Cllr Pain

Air Ambulance Support XR713 after reassembly Falconry Collections at the popular Cold War Jets taxi days held every May and August at the Bruntingthorpe have been offering corporate Airfield are helping to keep two Midlands- hospitality and team building services for based air ambulances flying. many years via its Big Thunder arm. There is a demand to continually improve this service Volunteers from the Warwickshire & and offer an increased diversity of activities Northampton and Derbyshire, Leicestershire for groups to choose from. We have reported & Rutland Air Ambulance are invited to attend in previous Newsletters that we have been the special days when some of the impressive investing in new vehicles to support the Big Cold War Jets Collection make high-speed taxi Thunder events but we are always on the runs along the 2-mile-long Bruntingthorpe look-out for other new and interesting runway. Visitors to the displays give activities we can offer. This is backed up with generously and the pennies and small-change the recent addition of Falconry which we can soon adds up. Approaching £3,000 has been now offer on site as part of a Big Thunder raised at the three most recent events. 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!

The car travelling across Australia

You looking at me?

Contact details

Upcoming Events We do hope that you’ve enjoyed this short insight into the site’s operation and that some Normally we would report at this point on any of the items have proven to be of interest. If large events might be of interest to local there is anything that you would like to see us residents. Due to the time of year, there are report back on in future Newsletters, then very few to mention however it is worth please do get in touch and let us know: noting that Boden Clothes will be having a clothes sale in Hangar ’42 once more. This is Email: [email protected] open to all local residents who may wish to Tel: 0116 279 9329 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--tyne- 34477299

Bruntingthorpe Newsletter December 2015