Revealed: £4.9m bill for cash-strapped PSNI to buy disused Kinnegar army barracks near Belfast
The police are to spend £4.9m buying a disused army barracks near Belfast, the News Letter can reveal.
The bill doesn’t include the cost of renovating the 54-acre site to turn it into a new training grounds, which the force now confirms is the intended use for Kinnegar Logistics Base.
Located on the shore of Holywood, a few minutes drive to the east of Belfast, Kinnegar was both a barracks and prisoner of war camp during the Second World War, and housed large numbers of troops and civilian staff during the Troubles, but has been out of use for several years.
As this newspaper revealed earlier this week, the police have inked a deal to buy it from the Ministry of Defence, and are said to be eager to move in ‘at pace’ after legal processes to get the deeds are complete.
A PSNI spokeswoman now says that the purchase price of the site is £4.9m, but the full cost of transforming it into a training ground won’t be known until a business case for the project is approved.
The spokeswoman described Kinnegar as key to a ‘wider Belfast rationalisation’ of police facilities.
"That includes provision for future delivery of a new police college and training facility for the PSNI,” she said.
"Proposed development of the site [is] subject to business case and future funding [winning approval].
"We will continue to undertake significant engagement with various key stakeholders, including local residents, to discuss all the potential opportunities and benefits of any future development.”
The barracks have been out of action for years, with the Ministry of Defence first saying it wanted to get rid of Kinnegar in 2016.
But the sale was held up when the base was turned into an emergency mortuary for Covid victims after the pandemic hit.
Around 18 months ago, it was named on leaked documents as a location the Home Office was eyeing up as potential accommodation for asylum seekers.
Up to 500 beds could be found in the barracks, the documents claimed.
But then-Immigration Minister, Robert Jenrick, subsequently ruled that out, stating Kinnegar wasn’t part of the government’s trawl for ‘alternative large-scale sites’.
People living near the base will be relieved, as they’d feared the impact on traffic along residential streets if it was bought by a housing developer.