Plan for new live-fire site at The Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre in Gravesend
06:00, 04 January 2022
updated: 15:31, 04 January 2022
A new live-fire training site is due to be built at The Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre in Gravesend.
A planning application submitted to Gravesham council states the firearms venue would be within the existing training zones at the centre off Wharf Road, behind the range complex.
The venue would include a "skills house", and a support building offering teaching, shelter, washing and toilet facilities.
The application adds: "The training building will be used for live fire exercises. Firearms instructors are responsible for all elements of firearms and public order training and ensuring that training is carried out safely."
Screened by an existing 5.34-metre-high blockwork wall, the location originally housed an aircraft fuselage for siege training, which is now carried out elsewhere.
The new concrete two-storey building will replace the existing live fire house to provide a "more varied training facility for personnel in the use of firearms", and the existing live fire accommodation will be retained as a training building.
Inside, various stair and balcony configurations will represent differing building styles for training.
A planning statement adds: "The main building is designed to provide a series of rooms with flexibility in some areas in order to alter the configuration of the spaces. The majority of the walls are to be concrete with ballistic steel and rubber linings internally and ballistic shutters over all external openings. The roof area provides enclosures for plant and storage and fixing points for abseil training."
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